The Keystone Space Collaborative concluded its inaugural conference this week as the organization looks to continue advocating on behalf of the tri-state region so that it can continue to play a vital role in humanity's future extraterrestrial exploration.
As an organization committed to attracting, growing and boosting the next generation of space industry businesses in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, the Keystone Space Collaborative wants to make space more accessible, not only to other businesses but also to populations of people who have been left out of the out-of-this-world conversation since it began picking up momentum during the launch of NASA in the 1950s.
Playing on the region's already existing strengths, be it already existing space companies like Pittsburgh-based Astrobotic Technologies or with the talent potential coming out of the region's top universities, the Keystone Space Collaborative wants to build on the region's prior space-related success to ensure it keeps that role in the future. After all, it was Pittsburgh-based Rockwell Manufacturing Co. that manufactured the Apollo command and service module which put astronauts on the Moon between 1969 and 1972 including Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
The conference, held at the Carnegie Science Center from April 20-21, was the first major unification of those efforts, which featured a speech from NASA Administrator Bill Nelson as well as a panel discussion featuring top NASA officials who examined how the region can continue to advance the NASA's missions, among other presentations held throughout the event attended by several hundred people.
"For you specifically in this three-state area, 13,000 jobs are directly a result of the civilian space program — billions of dollars — and it's only going to get bigger and it's going to get bigger because this of public-private partnership," Nelson, who reports directly to President Joe Biden, said. "Our space station is getting old. We're going to keep it going for another eight years and then we're going to de-orbit this International Space Station that in this Heinz Field (behind me fits) from one goalpost to another; that's how big the space station is up there, and it's going to be replaced with commercial space stations."
For Justine Kasznica, the board chair and founding member for the Collaborative as well as a shareholder at Babst Calland, organizing 63 space industry and related experts for the conference proved a prideful moment for her and her team. She also believes the conference stood on its own as a "real jewel" for the region.
"It is incredible and it was a real strategic showing of how this region can position itself as a thought leader in the space industry nationally and internationally," Kasznica said. "We built on the various speakers, panelists and lawmakers who spoke through this day-and-a-half that we had this conference and the resounding theme is that our region provides a unique strength to the space ecosystem, and that strength is in our advanced technologies; robotics, machine learning, AI, computer software, as well as our manufacturing capabilities and material science capabilities and life sciences."
The conference was also just the first of many initiatives to come in the looming months and years ahead for the Collaborative, which is setting its sights on working with small and large companies to drive a strategic plan, further define priorities for the Collaborative based on feedback from those who attended the conference and to continue working with lawmakers who are interested in supporting the mission of the Collaborative so that it can draft a commitment of support for the industry, among other objectives.
"Conferences in the silo are just that; conferences that are well attended and we can pat ourselves on the back," Kasznica said. "What we're trying to achieve with this conference is the beginning of a conversation that will result in several tangible, actionable items for the organization."
