space industry | Exo News

Tag: space industry

Workers Needed in the Expanding Space Industry

May 2, 2021
ExoNews Editor

Article by Michael Sheetz April 18, 2021 (cnbc.com)

• This is a “most exciting time” to be involved in the private commercial space industry, Steve Isakowitz, CEO of The Aerospace Corporation and former president of Virgin Galactic, told attendees of the America’s Future Series Space Innovation Summit on April 6th and 7th. “I do think there’s opportunities for everybody to participate in the excitement … [and] it’s a great opportunity for the government to really lean in on looking for those public-private partnerships.”

• But Isakowitz says that private and government organizations must do more to tap the next generation of US space workers. “We need to do more [to] expand the candidate pool. We’ve got to make sure that all of America has the benefit of being part of the… opportunities that are out there.”

• The Aerospace Corporation, a federally-funded research and development center and non-profit based in El Segundo, California, focuses on analysis and assessment of space programs for organizations, including NASA, the Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center, and the National Reconnaissance Office.

• A report released by The Aerospace Corp urges space industry companies to partner with teachers and educators to focus more on science, tech, engineering and math disciplines. “I think that involves really looking at the curriculum that we teach our students to kind of draw their interest in. We often see that when you go into elementary schools there’s a lot of interest in these fields and the technical fields — and then it sort of drops off pretty quickly when they get into the middle school in high school years,” Isakowitz said.

• Isakowitz noted that internships, apprenticeships and fellowships have been essential to bringing students in and giving them hands-on experience. The Brooke Owens Fellowship helps place undergraduate women at space ventures and the Patti Grace Smith Fellowship helps black students find internships.

• Space Talent is a job board hosted by the investment group Space Capital, listing more than 3,600 openings at space infrastructure companies building spacecraft, rockets and more. Those job openings include a range of disciplines, from accounting to IT, design, manufacturing and more.

• A wave of investment by the private sector is “really driving a lot of the changes we’re now seeing in space,” says Isakowitz, and has given rise to a new generation of private space companies such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX. And according to Isakowitz, this entrepreneurial climate has also brought with it “a new ability to attract the kind of talent and excitement we need to really bring folks into this industry.”

The growth of space businesses makes this “the most exciting time” to be involved in the

**Steve Isakowitz, CEO of The Aerospace Corporation**

industry, but one CEO says private and government organizations must do more to tap the next generation of U.S. workers.

“I do think there’s opportunities for everybody to participate in the excitement … [and] it’s a great opportunity for the government to really lean in on looking for those public-private partnerships,” Steve Isakowitz, CEO of The Aerospace Corporation and former president of Virgin Galactic, told attendees of the America’s Future Series Space Innovation Summit. The event ran on April 6 and 7.

“We need to do more and expand the candidate pool — we’ve got to make sure that all of America has the benefit of being part of the STEM, K-12, opportunities that are out there,” he added, referring to the academic discipline that includes science, tech, engineering and math.

The Aerospace Corporation, based in El Segundo, California, is a federally-funded research and development center and non-profit.

The corporation focuses on analysis and assessment of space programs for organizations, including NASA, the Air Force’s Space and Missile Systems Center, and the National Reconnaissance Office.

Isakowitz’s comments coincided with The Aerospace Corp’s release of a report titled “Developing Future Space Workers.” From the report, he highlighted that he believes the space industry can partner with teachers and underrepresented groups.

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. ExoNews.org distributes this material for the purpose of news reporting, educational research, comment and criticism, constituting Fair Use under 17 U.S.C § 107. Please contact the Editor at ExoNews with any copyright issue.

Trump Leaves a Lasting Mark on Space

December 24, 2020
ExoNews Editor

Article by Miriam Kramer December 15, 2020 (axios.com)

• President Trump put the American space program front-and-center during his tenure. Building upon years of work by the space industry, the Trump administration helped open up new commercial opportunities in orbit. But some question whether those gains are sustainable in the long term.

• “I think the space program is in better shape now than it was when he took office,” says John Logsdon, the founder of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University. Trump consistently prioritized NASA funding in his budget proposals and relaunched the National Space Council which holds agencies accountable for their work with space. His administration extended the reach of commercial partnerships in space, outsourcing that work to private companies in a trend that is likely to continue far into the future. And Trump created Space Force.

• Most of the criticism of Trump’s space policy is due to the political rhetoric accompanying them rather than the substance. Trump consistently politicized NASA’s wins, claiming credit for the Obama and Bush-era policies, and framing NASA’s accomplishments as ways to “make America great again,” Logsdon said. That has put off some space allies, including Russia, which has yet to sign on to NASA’s Artemis Accords’ plans for the exploration of the Moon.

• The Trump administration moved the ball forward for the US space enterprise, to be sure. But credit also goes to those in the space industry who went before and did years of ground work. Commercializing space with private rockets and spacecraft has taken time and funding from a number of previous administrations. The Space Force was an idea long before Trump took office.

• Some experts are also concerned that some of the progress made in commercializing space may not be sustainable. Landing people on the Moon is an entirely new level of difficulty for any private company. Some lawmakers have expressed concerns about whether a human lander built by private companies would be as safe as one built by NASA. And the market for space services may be limited to government customers, at least for the foreseeable future, as the private market for those kinds of missions isn’t clear.

• Biden will need to decide what his administration will build on when it comes to Trump’s space policies. Some suggest the new administration should continue with the Artemis Moon missions, commercial opportunities, and Space Force while changing the rhetoric around space accomplishments.

President Trump put the American space program front-and-center during his tenure, defining priorities in orbit and beyond that will outlast his four years as president.

The big picture: The Trump administration helped open up new commercial opportunities in orbit, building on years of work by the space industry. But some question whether those gains are sustainable in the long term.

What’s happening: “I think the space program is in better shape now than it was when he took office,” John Logsdon, the founder of the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, told me.

• Trump consistently prioritized NASA funding in his budget proposals and relaunched the National Space Council, which aims to hold agencies accountable for their work with space.
• The Trump administration also extended the reach of commercial partnerships in space. Instead of NASA building a human-rated lunar lander, for example, the agency is outsourcing that work to private companies in a trend that is likely to continue far into the future.
• “[Space] may be one of the least controversial areas of his legacy,” Michael Gleason of the Aerospace Corporation told me.
• And perhaps his biggest move was standing up the U.S. Space Force.
“While some of the Trump administration’s space policy decisions and initiatives have generated criticism, that is more due to the political rhetoric accompanying them than the substance.”
— The Secure World Foundation, in a briefing document

READ ENTIRE ARTICLE