2 days Ago By Breeanna Jent [email protected]
The annual Space Symposium, now in its 40th year, returns this week to Colorado Springs, featuring hundreds of exhibitors and several new additions to its usual lineup of events, roundtables, panel discussions, luncheons and extended "track" programs. A record 304 exhibitors will showcase space-related hardware, programs and technologies across 153,000 square feet of exhibition space at The Broadmoor, including 48 emerging space companies that are part of the "Innovate Space: Supplier Showcase," a new addition to Space Symposium this year. Here are some of the must-see exhibits visitors won't want to miss: 1.
Outdoor exhibit — VAST, Space Haven-1. Experience an immersive journey through the interior of the world's first commercial space station. Targeted to launch in May 2026 with SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch vehicle, Vast's state-of-the-art, free-flying Space Haven-1 module will be visited by Crew Dragon missions, and is a contender to succeed the International Space Station by the end of the 2020s.
Haven-1's primary structure qualification model is the first space station primary structure built in the U.S. in more than 20 years, the company said in a Feb.
6 news release. At Space Symposium, find it outside the BAE Systems Exhibit Center North Hall (the west side of Bartolin Hall at The Broadmoor), by the roundabout at Mesa Avenue and Lake Circle. 2.
Outdoor exhibit — Firefly Aerospace, Blue Ghost Lunar Lander. See the Blue Ghost lunar lander on the Lakeside Terrace at The Broadmoor, the full-scale model that completed its first commercial moon landing on March 2 and has other lunar missions scheduled in 2026 and 2028. Firefly's first Blue Ghost mission completed its objectives after more than 14 days of operations on the moon's surface, Firefly Aerospace spokesperson Risa Schnautz said, "marking the longest commercial operations on the moon to date.
" The Blue Ghost missions will help advance lunar research; enable communications for future human, robot and spacecraft explorers; provide more insight into the moon's minerals and geologic properties that can support infrastructure and lunar habitation; measure radio emissions across the solar system; investigate the formation and composition of the Gruithuisen Domes, mapping their geologic features and searching for potential water and hydrogen molecules; and other investigations that will help inform future human and robotic exploration of the moon. 3. Outdoor exhibit — Kratos, Space Domain Awareness power at the edge.
In a live demonstration at its outdoor exhibit, Kratos will show visitors dynamic electromagnetic spectrum operations using a space domain awareness edge terminal. Radio frequency enables navigation, communication, intelligence and weapons guidance during warfare, and "always-changing threats demand getting capabilities to the field faster for the warfighter to address these challenges," Kratos spokesperson Neil Oatley said. This demonstration at the symposium will highlight how warfighters can understand the impact of and apply real-time mitigation to the shifting radio frequency environment to avoid factors like unintentional signal interference or intentional signal jamming.
"The ability to perform these functions remotely at the network's edge represents a major step forward in capabilities compared to traditional satellite terminals," Oatley said. Find this exhibit outside the exhibition halls, between Broadmoor and Bartolin Halls. 4.
New addition — Student-led drone show, performed by the Drone Performance Team at the Innovation Center of St. Vrain Valley Schools. Stay tuned right after the opening ceremony on Monday for a student-led drone show over The Broadmoor Lake at 9 p.
m. Hosted by the drone performance team at the Innovation Center of St. Vrain Valley Schools in Longmont, student project managers, design animators, drone pilots and a music crew will debut the show they have choreographed and prepared over the last year that features space-themed images and a soundtrack sure to wow.
The upcoming Space Symposium performance is "an incredible accomplishment within our program and our team (that) ...
lends credibility to the hard work, (the students') time and everything they've put into this program," drone performance team coordinator Danny Hernandez said. And check out these other new additions to Space Symposium this year: 5. Innovate Space: Supplier Showcase.
Located in The Broadmoor's Rocky Mountain Ballroom, the supplier showcase will highlight 48 unique supplier companies that are bringing new approaches and technologies to support commercial, national security, civil and research missions. 6. Flash Talks.
On Tuesday afternoon and throughout the day on Wednesday, symposium attendees can hear key, concise insights and ideas — no more than 10 minutes long — on several topics shaping the global space ecosystem. Scheduled to take place at the International Center, speakers include Julie Sheetz, acting deputy assistant secretary of defense, Space and Missile Defense, U.S.
Department of Defense; Janice Starzyk, deputy director of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Office of Space Commerce; Judith Collins, New Zealand's minister for space and the country's attorney general, among other titles; Rodrigo da Costa, executive director of the European Union Agency for the Space Programme; and Max Haot, CEO of Vast.
7. Space Warfighter Lounge. In this reserved area, U.
S. Defense Department cardholders and military service members can connect and build relationships that serve space-oriented missions and challenges, symposium coordinators said..
