FUELING DREAMS TO NURTURE THE NEXT GEN OF AEROSPACE TALENT

by KIM DALY, Senior Writer

Colorado’s ascent as an aerospace powerhouse is fueled by the highest concentration of private aerospace jobs in the nation, and its headquartering of the U.S. Space Command (USSPACECOM). In addition, it requires both academic excellence and industry collaboration. The University of Colorado, Colorado Springs’ (UCCS) recent designation as an Academic Engagement Enterprise (AEE) partner illustrates a unified — and vital — effort by local entities to fill this talent pipeline.

“The global space workforce is aging,” says Shelli Brunswick, the executive director of the Center for International Space Policy for the BEID Society, and former COO of the Space Foundation. “And we are not prepared to replace them as they retire.”

AEEs seek to change this by fostering relationships and collaboration between

USSPACECOM and cutting-edge academic institutions. Their goals include engaging college graduates, increasing space-applied research and innovation, expanding spacefocused analytic partnerships and enriching the overall strategic dialogue on space.

Other organizations, like the Space Foundation, are also raising awareness, exciting young people and providing pathways for opportunity. Importantly, those opportunities transcend aerospace.

“Not everyone needs to be a STEM professional,” says Brunswick. Space cuts across industries, including emerging technologies like energy storage, healthcare, AI, quantum computing and virtual reality; as well as more common ones, such as satellite servicing and orbital debris removal. It transverses economies like public safety, transportation, education, agriculture and healthcare.

Building a pipeline of space talent also requires collaboration among industries to provide the next generation with hands-on practice, and Colorado Springs is well suited.

Of the 500 aerospace and defense companies in Colorado, about 250 of them are in COS, plus approximately 150 cybersecurity companies, explains Dawn Conley, CEO of Catalyst Campus, a COS-based nonprofit that connects academia, industry and government to support emerging tech companies that could play a critical role in solutions for the Department of Defense (DOD).

“Colorado is such a great hub for innovation,” says Brunswick. “Now is a really great opportunity for space to be a great leader in this community, to create high-paying jobs, to create jobs that are for high school graduates and PhDs and everything in between.”

Kim Daly is a senior staff writer for the SoCo Business Forum & Digest.

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