{"id":17302,"date":"2023-03-30T23:20:58","date_gmt":"2023-03-30T15:20:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/redmond-space-district-celebrates-the-northwests-hotspot-for-satellite-industry\/"},"modified":"2023-03-30T23:20:58","modified_gmt":"2023-03-30T15:20:58","slug":"redmond-space-district-celebrates-the-northwests-hotspot-for-satellite-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/redmond-space-district-celebrates-the-northwests-hotspot-for-satellite-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Redmond Space District\u2019 celebrates the Northwest\u2019s hotspot for satellite industry"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"SpaceX
SpaceX employees in Redmond, Wash., give a cheer during the countdown to a Starlink satellite launch in 2019. Thousands of Starlink satellites have been built in Redmond. (SpaceX via YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

REDMOND, Wash. \u2014 This Seattle-area suburb has played a role in the space industry for more than a half-century, but the city of Redmond is shining brighter than ever on the final frontier \u2014 and now it has the brand name to prove it.<\/p>\n

Welcome to the Redmond Space District.<\/p>\n

Redmond Mayor Angela Birney showcased the newly established district in a proclamation issued today during her annual State of the City Summit at City Hall, with representatives of the area\u2019s leading space companies in attendance.<\/p>\n

The district designation applies to the entire city rather than to a specific neighborhood. Birney told GeekWire she hopes the campaign will draw even more space ventures to Redmond.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt creates that ecosystem of innovation, technology, knowledge, people \u2014 all of that to create that really central place so they can come in and know that they\u2019re going to get different resources for the space industry,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

It all started in the late 1960s with the Rocket Research Corp., a company that later became part of Aerojet Rocketdyne. Aerojet\u2019s Redmond operation has built propulsion systems for virtually every deep-space mission since the Apollo era. But Redmond\u2019s space cluster hasn\u2019t been resting on its laurels.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, Redmond is home to an innovative and entrepreneurial ecosystem alongside two of the largest satellite manufacturers in the world: SpaceX and Project Kuiper,\u201d Kristina Hudson, CEO of OneRedmond, a public-private partnership for economic and community development, said in a news release.<\/p>\n

\"Redmond
Redmond Mayor Angela Birney (center, in blue dress) and representatives of local space companies show off copies of the proclamation about the Redmond Space District. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SpaceX\u2019s Redmond facility produces the satellites for the global Starlink broadband internet network. More than 3,800 Starlink satellites are working today, accounting for about half of all active satellites in orbit.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Amazon\u2019s Project Kuiper, headquartered in Redmond, is laying the groundwork for putting another 3,236 satellites into low Earth orbit over the next few years.<\/p>\n

Redmond-based Xplore is working on a different breed of spacecraft, the Xcraft satellite platform, which can be adapted for use in low Earth orbit or for missions to the moon, Mars and beyond.<\/p>\n

\u201cPositioning Xplore in this hub for space activity and innovation was strategic,\u201d said Lisa Rich, the company\u2019s co-founder and chief operating officer. \u201cWe are surrounded by a community of customers and colleagues including SpaceX, Microsoft\u2019s Azure Orbital and Amazon Project Kuiper, and we have fantastic vendors and suppliers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Redmond
Redmond Mayor Angela Birney delivers her State of the City presentation at Redmond City Hall. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Honeywell Aerospace, Kymeta, RBC Signals, Spectralux and Triumph are among other space-centric ventures with a Redmond address. <\/p>\n

The Redmond Space District campaign has already spawned an official logo and lapel pins. OneRedmond\u2019s Hudson told GeekWire that in the future, the branding could appear on flags at the city\u2019s space companies \u2014 and maybe even on welcome signs posted at the city limits.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n

\u201cWe want to make sure that we have that flag in the ground, [to tell people] that we have made more satellites in Redmond than in any other city across the world,\u201d Hudson said. <\/p>\n

In a follow-up email, Hudson said the Redmond Space District is \u201ca brand that will raise the awareness of Redmond\u2019s leadership in satellite production and innovation in the space industry.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis in turn, means opportunities to grow our regional industry through workforce development opportunities, company recruitment, and fostering innovation in this industry cluster,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

For Birney, a former middle-school science teacher who was born during the Apollo era, the fact that her city is coming to be seen as a space district gives her a personal thrill that goes beyond dollars and cents.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really brings back my childhood wonderment of where can we go in space and what does that look like, and what will we see and explore, and what new worlds will we find,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SpaceX employees in Redmond, Wash., give a cheer during the countdown to a Starlink satellite launch in 2019. Thousands of Starlink satellites have been built in Redmond. (SpaceX via YouTube) REDMOND, Wash. \u2014 This Seattle-area suburb has played a role in the space industry for more than a half-century, but the city of Redmond is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[864,354,962,4584,4390,20,4336,442,316,440],"class_list":["post-17302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-aerojet-rocketdyne","tag-kymeta","tag-project-kuiper","tag-rbc-signals","tag-redmond","tag-satellite","tag-satellite-broadband","tag-satellites","tag-spacex","tag-starlink"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17302"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17302\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}