It's been six years since Albuquerque aerospace nonprofit NewSpace Nexus first hosted its State of the Space Industrial Base Conference. This year's event, held last week at the Sheraton Airport Hotel, was the nonprofit's largest, said its CEO Casey DeRaad.
More than 275 people attended the conference this year, per NewSpace Nexus' count. It was supported in part by the Defense Innovation Unit, an organization under the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Space Force and the Air Force Research Laboratory.
Representatives from those organizations spoke on different panels and helped lead various workshops and "co-innovation sessions" over the three-day event. Besides hosting panels and workshops, DeRaad said a focus of the annual conference is inviting space companies and industry partners from outside New Mexico to the state.
Those companies include Rhea Space Activity, headquartered in Washington, D.C., with a growing office in Santa Fe; Space Kinetic, which handles manufacturing and other operations in Albuquerque; and iBOSS GmbH, a German company that recently established an office for its U.S. subsidiary in Albuquerque.
Space industry investors attended the conference, too, including Dan Schatzman, the CEO and senior managing partner of SpaceFund. Based in Houston, it's a venture firm focused on early stage investments in space startups.
Schatzman attended the conference for the previous two years, as well. He met with space industry leaders and startups the firm is considering investing in at the conference.
SpaceFund is currently raising its third fund with a target of $100 million. Its current portfolio includes 21 space startups, including Rhea Space Activity.
It's a good time to invest in the space industry, Schatzman said. He estimated the space industry is "probably growing as fast as [artificial intelligence]," driven primarily by lower costs of launching into space and more players in the industry. A recent report by the Colorado-based Space Foundation shows space workforce growth, as well.
New Mexico, in particular, is "very well positioned to be a leader in the space industry," he added, because of its location at the center of a broad "Space Valley," which Schatzman said stretches from Boca Chica, Texas — where space launch company SpaceX maintains a launch site — up through Colorado, which hosts an annual Space Symposium event in Colorado Springs.
Government stakeholders, including the Air Force Research Laboratory and the U.S. Space Force, and spots like Spaceport America and two Department of Energy-funded national laboratories, Sandia National Laboratories and Los Alamos National Laboratory, provided resources and customers for space companies, DeRaad and Schatzman said.
The timing of this year's conference was opportune, DeRaad said. That's because the Department of Defense, in early April, released its 2024 Commercial Space Integration Strategy, which outlines DoD priorities in "integrating commercial space solutions," according to the Department's website.
Many discussions at the conference surrounded the "speed and resiliency" of developing commercial space technologies, DeRaad added, in part because of those strategies outlined by the Department of Defense.
NewSpace Nexus, which hosted the State of the Space Industrial Base Conference, has a group of what it calls "Ignitor" companies that participate in an accelerator and connect with resources in New Mexico. Some of those Ignitor companies, like Marquette, Michigan-based Kall Morris Inc., were at the conference.
The Albuquerque nonprofit also helps organize a Space Industrial Leadership Council, which includes partners like the Space Foundation, Space Florida and Space Northwest. DeRaad said NewSpace Nexus hopes to continue providing workshops for space startups throughout the year alongside those Council partners.
