Ready to Launch — the most powerful Space Symposium ever!

From the opening ceremony featuring Japan’s enra dance troupe, to a panel discussion featuring the heads of 12 prominent space agencies from around the world, to feature plenary sessions starring space leaders from Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates and Latin America — the 31st Space Symposium, April 13-16, looks to be our most diversely international event ever.  

It all kicks off, unofficially, with Yuri’s Night — a celebration of Russian and American human spaceflight milestones — on Sunday, April 12, at the Space Foundation Discovery Center. The greatest global gathering of the space community, anywhere on Earth, the Space Symposium continues through Thursday night’s Space Technology Hall of Fame Dinner – featuring Professor Mark McCaughrean, Senior Scientific Advisor for ESA.

Your Space Foundation team has been ramping up for this Symposium for more than a year, and we hope you are planning to join us. It’s the one event each year that you don’t want to miss, and never more so than in 2015. 

Senior Government Speakers: Despite its increasingly commercial and international flavor, the power-networking environment of the Space Symposium still gets its thrust from the participation of senior government officials. From liftoff, we have one of the strongest events ever in this regard. Our opening session features the heads of space agencies of the United States (NASA), Canada (CSA), Europe (ESA), France (CNES), Germany (DLR), Italy (ASI), Japan (JAXA), South Korea (KARI), Mexico (AEM), the Netherlands (NSO), Romania (ROSA), the United Arab Emirates (UAESA) and the United Kingdom (UK Space). In a special presentation honoring the 20th anniversary of normalized relations between the U.S. and Vietnam, Dr. Pham Anh Tuan leads a delegation from the Vietnam National Satellite Center.

Elected officials participating include Rep. Jim Bridentstine (R OK); Rep. Doug Lamborn (R CO); Mr. Klaus Peter Willsch, Chairman, Aviation and Space Group, German Bundestag; Governor John Hickenlooper (D-CO); and Lt. Governor Joe Garcia (D-CO).

Other seniors from government include: the Secretary of the U.S. Air Force; the Director of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency; the Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control; the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Space Policy); the Director of Global Operations of U.S. Strategic Command; the Deputy Commander of U.S. Northern Command; the Commander of Air Force Space Command; the Commander of the U.S. Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center; the Director of NASA Johnson Space Center; the Signals and Intelligence Director of the NRO; the Commander of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command; the Military Deputy, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition; the Deputy Secretary of Defense; the Director, Space Policy, NSC; the Commander, JFCC-Space; the Deputy Commander, JFCC-Space; and the Associate Administrator of the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation.

The list goes on and on, but the message is clear: to get a year’s worth of networking with the most senior government, commercial and industrial space leaders accomplished in a single week, the only place to be is the 31st Space Symposium!

Technical Track: Long known as the premier space policy and programs event in the world, the Space Symposium, last year, dipped its toe into the waters of scientific and technical presentations. The result was outstanding, and in only its second outing, the Tech Track of the 31st Space Symposium is packed with papers and presentations. Tech Track covers Science and Exploration, Small Satellite Design-Test-Infrastructure, Launch, Telescopes, Earth Observation and Remote Sensing, Government-Industry Relationships, Smallsat Studies and Lessons Learned, Satellite Design-System Architecture-Mission Assurance, Space Situational Awareness and more. Tech Track presenters come from industry, academia, FFRDCs, National Labs, space agencies, the OECD, the GAO and many, many other organizations. You don’t need to travel the world to get your space science and technology fix, because the world comes to the Space Symposium!

International Exhibitors: The Ball Aerospace Exhibit Center will host even more international exhibitors than ever before, with significant additions by Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany and our first-ever Turkish exhibitors. Of course, U.S. industry is very strongly represented, as is the global satellite sector, and we’re particularly proud to welcome back NASA! The only place to see the world’s latest space capabilities on display is the Space Symposium!

Special Sessions, Countries/Regions In Focus: With astounding progress being made in space programs around the world, the Space Foundation has selected several for special attention during the Symposium. These include dedicated sessions focused on Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates.

Classified Space and Cyber Sessions: Last year was also the Space Foundation’s first foray into conducting smaller, classified sessions, and the addition was extremely well received. For the 31st Space Symposium, we are proud to team with Scitor and AFSPC to offer two classified sessions, both held at the TS/SCI classification level. The Space Classified session is already sold out, but there are a few seats remaining in the Cyber Classified session.

Mega Panels on Crucial Issues: While we generally try to keep our panel discussions at the Symposium to a manageable three or four people, some issues are just too big. This year our “Mega” panels include Prospects and Issues for the Launch Community; Commercial Satellites; and Prospects and Issues for Commercial Spaceflight.

Major Awards Events: The Space Foundation’s highest honor, the General James E. Hill Lifetime Space Achievement Award, will be presented to ESA Director General Jean-Jacques Dordain at a special luncheon on Wednesday, April 15. Our other major awards, all presented during the opening ceremony, are:

• The Alan Shepard Technology in Education Award, co-presented by NASA and the Astronauts Memorial Foundation, to June Scobee Rodgers
• The Space Achievement Award, presented to the U.S. Air Force-Boeing X-37B OTV team
• The Douglas S. Morrow Public Outreach Award, presented to the NASA-Industry EFT-1 team
• The John L. “Jack” Swigert, Jr., Award for Space Exploration, presented to the Rosetta Comet Exploration team

Expanded New Generation Programming: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and, indeed, it’s hard to find a space conference these days that doesn’t offer at least a tip of the hat to New Generation Space Leaders. New Generation Space Leaders programs originated with the Space Foundation, at the Space Symposium, and this year’s special program for under-35 space professionals is broader in scope, longer in duration and offers more networking and development opportunities for coming-up space leaders than ever before.  

Kicking Things Off with Yuri’s Night: After the board meeting at the Space Foundation Discovery Center, join us for Yuri’s Night on Sunday evening from 6:00-9:00 p.m. — the global space party celebrating human spaceflight. Both Yuri Gagarin’s first flight, and the first flight of the Space Shuttle, took place on April 12. Yuri’s night events take place all over the world, and the Space Foundation event uniquely brings together our industry, SGAC and other new generation space leaders and local Colorado space enthusiasts. Featuring food and beverage, live music and presentations by astronauts and others, it’s a fun way to ease into the Space Symposium, with all proceeds benefitting Space Foundation STEM education programs. Save by purchasing your tickets online now!

A Grand Wrap-up — the Space Technology Hall of Fame: As always, the Space Symposium wraps up on Thursday evening with the Space Technology Hall of Fame program — including a private induction ceremony for our new Hall of Famers, a Reception, and the Space Technology Hall of Fame Dinner. The Honorees this year are:

• Chronos Vision Technology, a refractive eye surgery device used internationally to improve vision
• Seismic Damper Technology, a motion control mechanism used to protect structures against the effects of high winds and earthquakes

The View from Here is that your Space Foundation team is ready to launch the best Space Symposium in our 31 years of conducting the program. It is the one event you can not afford to miss, and we look forward to welcoming you all “home” to Colorado Springs soon!

This article is part of Space Watch: April 2015 (Volume: 14, Issue: 4).