{"id":19348,"date":"2016-06-21T00:21:33","date_gmt":"2016-06-20T16:21:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/newspace-2016-makes-seattle-the-space-industrys-center-of-the-universe-this-week\/"},"modified":"2016-06-21T00:21:33","modified_gmt":"2016-06-20T16:21:33","slug":"newspace-2016-makes-seattle-the-space-industrys-center-of-the-universe-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/newspace-2016-makes-seattle-the-space-industrys-center-of-the-universe-this-week\/","title":{"rendered":"NewSpace 2016 makes Seattle the space industry\u2019s center of the universe this week"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Space
\u201cThe sky\u2019s the limit\u201d for space ventures, according to the head of Washington state\u2019s Office of Aerospace. This composite photo sets Seattle\u2019s Space Needle against a field of stars. For more of photographer Mikul Eriksson\u2019s work, visit MikulEriksson.com or click on the image.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There\u2019s a neighborhood in Seattle that jokingly calls itself \u201cthe center of the universe,\u201d but this week the title is no joke \u2013 at least when it comes to the entrepreneurial side of the space industry. The Space Frontier Foundation\u2019s NewSpace 2016 conference is making it so.<\/p>\n

The annual conference has been traditionally been held in California\u2019s Silicon Valley. But from now on, the Space Frontier Foundation plans to bring the show to Seattle every other year. \u201cIf you guys mess it up, well, we\u2019ll never come back,\u201d Jeff Feige, the foundation\u2019s chairman, told a group of Seattle space enthusiasts during a recent preview of the meeting.<\/p>\n

John Thornquist, the director of Washington state\u2019s Office of Aerospace, says no one will mess it up.<\/p>\n

\"John
John Thornquist is director of the Office of Aerospace at the Washington State Department of Commerce. (Credit: Jeff Luke via LinkedIn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cBecause of our burgeoning space community here, it makes sense to have it up here \u2013 and we look forward to having it in the years to come,\u201d he told GeekWire. \u201cI think it\u2019s appropriate to recognize the state of Washington as a space hub on the West Coast because of the commercial work that we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seattle has long been known as the Jet City, thanks to its connection to the Boeing Co. Its status as a Space City is less obvious: There\u2019s nary a launch pad in sight, the nearest NASA center is in Silicon Valley, and the city\u2019s most visible rocket is arguably a sculpture in the Fremont neighborhood (a.k.a. the Center of the Universe).<\/p>\n

Boeing\u2019s aerospace roots, and its wealth of engineers, are among the factors contributing to the Pacific Northwest\u2019s status in the space industry. Another factor is the Seattle area\u2019s prominence as a center for software development, data analytics and cloud computing \u2013 engineering sectors that take on greater importance as space operations become more data-centric. That\u2019s a big reason why SpaceX\u2019s satellite initiative is headquartered in Redmond, Wash.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the fact that the region\u2019s dot-com billionaires, such as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, are putting hundreds of millions of dollars into high-flying ventures such as Blue Origin and Vulcan Aerospace.<\/p>\n

The agenda for NewSpace 2016, which opens on Tuesday at the Motif Seattle Hotel and finishes up with Thursday night\u2019s awards gala at the Museum of Flight, features many of the Seattle area\u2019s leading space ventures. Here\u2019s just a sampling:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Blue Origin<\/strong>, which plans to offer suborbital space trips as well as orbital launches.<\/li>\n
  • Vulcan Aerospace<\/strong>, which plans to use the world\u2019s biggest airplane as a platform for rocket launches.<\/li>\n
  • Planetary Resources<\/strong>, which is building a network of Earth-observing satellites and eventually plans to mine near-Earth asteroids.<\/li>\n
  • Spaceflight Industries<\/strong>, which facilitates launch services and is working on its own satellite network for Earth observation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    NewSpace 2016 is also bringing in space industry pioneers from out of town, including Mark Sirangelo from Sierra Nevada Corp., which is working on a mini-shuttle to carry cargo for the International Space Station; Jason Dunn from Made In Space, which built the space station\u2019s first 3-D printer; Jane Poynter from World View, which is working on a balloon platform for near-space tourism; and Nevada billionaire Robert Bigelow, who\u2019s receiving the Space Frontier Foundation\u2019s \u201cVision to Reality\u201d award for Bigelow Aerospace\u2019s work on inflatable space modules.<\/p>\n

    Historically, NewSpace has been \u201cthe disruptive space conference,\u201d Feige noted.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThe only reason there\u2019s anything going on in the space business is because of entrepreneurship,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

    But this year\u2019s conference blends new-space entrepreneurship with old-space experience: Representatives of NASA, Aerojet Rocketdyne and other longtime players in the space game will be in attendance, alongside the brash upstarts.<\/p>\n

    \"Crew
    A Blue Origin engineer assembles a parachute cover at the company\u2019s production facility in Kent, Wash., with the New Shepard suborbital spacecraft\u2019s crew capsule in the background. (Credit: Blue Origin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    In a way, Seattle is a brash upstart as well: Washington state may not have a orbital-class launch pad, but Thornquist said it has the kind of expertise in advanced manufacturing and data storage and analysis that could put it in a \u201cnice niche\u201d for the next stage of space entrepreneurship.<\/p>\n

    \u201cWe\u2019re not sending satellites and payload and vehicles up into space just to be in space,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re there for a reason, usually to collect information or to deliver payload. So in that sense \u2026 this is a really nice area of tech companies that can help in processing that information and use that data.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Does that mean the Pacific Northwest\u2019s aerospace cluster can grab the space spotlight from, say, Cape Canaveral, or Houston, or Los Angeles, or Silicon Valley? Thornquist says that\u2019s the wrong question to ask.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThere obviously will be competition, just in the sense that space is similar to the way aviation has been over the years. People will compete for the work that is out there,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t see this as a pie that we\u2019re trying to split up. I think the pie is growing in size.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Check out the website for NewSpace 2016 for registration information, and check back with GeekWire for this week\u2019s coverage of the conference.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u201cThe sky\u2019s the limit\u201d for space ventures, according to the head of Washington state\u2019s Office of Aerospace. This composite photo sets Seattle\u2019s Space Needle against a field of stars. For more of photographer Mikul Eriksson\u2019s work, visit MikulEriksson.com or click on the image. There\u2019s a neighborhood in Seattle that jokingly calls itself \u201cthe center of […]<\/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":[291],"class_list":["post-19348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-commercial-space"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19348"}],"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=19348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19348\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}