He is a businessman who served as chairman of the board of GeoEye, a company he helped to transform into the world's largest space imaging corporation and that merged with DigitalGlobe Inc in January 2013.

In August 1961, Abrahamson was assigned as spacecraft project officer on the VELA Nuclear Detection Satellite Program at Los Angeles Air Force Station, California.

From October 1964 to August 1965, while assigned to the 428th Tactical Fighter Squadron, Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico, he served two temporary tours of duty in Southeast Asia, where he flew 49 combat missions.

Abrahamson then served on the staff of the National Aeronautics and Space Council in the Executive Office of the President of the United States.

In March 1971 he became manager of the TV-guided, air-to-ground Maverick missile program at Headquarters Aeronautical Systems Division, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

Ultimately, concerns about the objectives of SDI and fiscal budgetary constraints forced the Reagan administration to announce the program would cease.

Lt. Gen. Abrahamson also served as a member of the board of directors of an AIM-listed company, Crescent Technology Ventures PLC ("CTV"), in the mid-2000s.