The Colorado Space Roundup dinner included the announcement of the 2023 CSBR Cosmic contributor award which is given to the individual who has made a significant impact on advancing Colorado’s prominence as the number one aerospace state per capita and/ or helped to advance the mission of CSBR in promoting aerospace in the state of Colorado. It was announced the 2023 CSBR Cosmic contributor is former congressman Ed Perlmutter for all his years of service and support to CSBR and the whole Colorado space ecosystem. 

CSBR would like to thank all the sponsors of the Space Roundup dinner including Forge Nano, The Boeing Company, Colorado One Fund, Empower, and First Western Trust. CSBR would like to send a special thank you to General John Barry, President and CEO of the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum for all his years of support to CSBR and its activities. 

On December 6^th, the Denver Museum of Nature and Science hosted the Colorado Space Roundup annual event celebrating the 20^th anniversary of the Colorado Space Business Roundtable organization.  The Colorado Space Roundup event had a complete sell-out for the third year in a row highlighting the event’s popularity and importance to the aerospace and defense community in Colorado.  The event theme this year was Collaboration, Thriving in Space which is a very appropriate event theme as Colorado is the number 1 aerospace state per capita within the U.S. with companies, both large and small, collaborating on space programs throughout the state.   

CSBR Chair, Bob Cone, provided opening remarks for the day and said “No other state collaborates like we do, and they all want to emulate us. The Roundup is all about furthering Collaboration between individuals, companies, elected leaders, and educational institutions. We are also supporting “Colorado Innovation Culture,” which is another Colorado competitive advantage.” 

The Colorado Space Roundup had an outstanding program this year highlighting the need and process for capital growth in the aerospace and defense industry. 2020-2022 was a banner time for investing in the aerospace industry, with high valuations and aggressive funding rounds, the industry saw an unprecedented infusion of capital through mergers and acquisitions, SPACs, and traditional raises. In additional to private investment, the government also plays a critical role in the development of technologies vital to national security through non-dilutive capital and public-private investment matching. Mo Islam, Co-founder, Payload Space, moderated the capital growth panel with experts within the capital growth field addressing the needs, concerns, and availability of capital today.  

The extremely popular congressional panel update was held again with representatives from seven or the ten Colorado congressional offices.  The representatives provided their perspective on aerospace and funding policies and the activities occurring in Washington DC.  Other topics included the need for expedited security clearances to address the immediate workforce needs within the Colorado aerospace community.  CSBR appreciates the time and efforts contributed by each Colorado congressional office to support the needs of Colorado companies in addition to the needs of the state of Colorado within the important aerospace and defense community.  

The Colorado Space Roundup main event, the informative and networking luncheon, had over 300 attendees this year provided a fully packed house at the Denver Museum Southeast Atrium.  Joe Troutman, Director of Government Affairs, provided opening remarks followed by Kyle Ellington, Director of Business Development at Layton Construction Company, who gave the welcoming address.  The luncheon was highlighted by two guest speakers, Colonel Jared Hoffman, Commander, Joint Intelligence Operations Center-Space, and Brigadier General Laura Clellan, The Adjutant General for the Colorado Department of Military and Veterans Affairs Office.  

Colonel Hoffman provided an unclassified briefing on the security threats that exist today in our space domain from key rogue nations.  Threats to the space domain are real and an awareness is critical to understand each threat and to deter those nations wherever possible.   

Brigadier General Clellan discussed how the Colorado National Guard acts as a workforce pipeline for Aerospace and Defense industries, and how the National Guard and employers can work together to capitalize on each other’s workforce’s and leverage expertise between part-time military and full-time aerospace employees and the Space National Guard and Fighter Recapitalization. 

The luncheon also hosted discussion panel on Inspiring the Artemis Generation through Bold Exploration Missions moderated by Gary Napier, Senior Manager of Communications for the Lockheed Martin Corporation. The panel explored the audacious missions, groundbreaking technologies, and unwavering determination that promises to inspire the next generation of space pioneers! Discussions focused on human exploration from both industry and academic partners to the robust NASA Artemis missions that will land the first woman and first person of color on the lunar surface using innovative technologies in collaboration with commercial, academic, and international partners. The panel’s space thought leaders delved into the remarkable advancements, challenges, and future possibilities of human space exploration, from the ambitious NASA Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the Moon, pave the way for crewed missions to Mars, to the technological innovations and scientific discovery. 

The Colorado Space Roundup afternoon panel sessions included the always inspiring student ambassador panel and the ever-important J.E.D.I. (Justice, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion) panel. Young professionals are the innovators, developers, and leaders of our future workforce! CSBR is engaging today’s students to mentor them to be our A-team co-workers of tomorrow. The student ambassadors participating on the panel discussed their experiences being a CSBR student ambassador and the interesting work performed by everyone on an aerospace design project, supported by a dedicated industry mentor for each student. The ambassador shared the background and performance details about their explorations, like biological manufacturing in space, 3-D printed medical instruments, custom rocket propellant formulas, sustainability, and space junk cleaning systems. 

The J.E.D.I. philosophy is extremely important within the aerospace and defense community today as it is the responsible duty of all companies and individuals to understand, implement and promote Justice, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion in our workplace, our community, and our daily lives. The J,E,D,I, panel was moderated by Alires Almon, Founder of Deep Space Predictive and the panel focused on the many aspects of Justice, Equality, Diversity, and Inclusiveness in the workplace. Panelists shared their stories of challenges and success from the C-suite to workforce development in rural communities. The audience was led in a prompted learning experience as part of the panel time to address and discuss specific examples of how to incorporate the J.E.D.I. teachings into our personal experiences.  CSBR and the J,E.D.I. committee would like to thank 5 Star Bank for their sponsorship of the CSBR J.E.D.I. initiative and becoming our first corporate J.E.D.I. Council member.

The 2023 Colorado Space Roundup organizing committee and the entire CSBR Board of Directors wishes to thank all those who dedicated their time and efforts into the Colorado Space Roundup dinner and Colorado Space Roundup main event.  Special thanks goes out to Kristin Thomas, COO at Red Canyon Software and to Joe Troutman, Director of Government Affairs at Forge Nano for Co-Chairing the event again this year.  Finally, and most importantly, CSBR would like to thank all our sponsors as without these events would not be possible.  Please recognize the following 2023 Colorado Space Roundup sponsors.

Gold Sponsors: University of Colorado Boulder, The Space Foundation. 

Silver Sponsors: Colorado Air and Space Port, Astroscale, The Boeing Company.  

Bronze Sponsors: VCFO, Manufacturer’s Edge, ALTEN Technology, Glenair, Colorado One Fund, OpenC3, York Space Systems, Red Canyon Software, 5Star Bank, Experior Laboratories, and Martensen Law Firm. 

Community Sponsors: Advanced Space, Aerospace Corporation, Burns and McDonnell, Bank of America, Analytics Mechanics Associates, Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, Merrick, Lockheed Martin Corporation, Stinson and United Launch Alliance. 

Breakfast Sponsors: Deep Space Predictive, Orion’s Belt Engineering and SG Aerospace and Gas. 

Reception Sponsors: Canopy Aerospace, StudioSE and Sherman and Howard. 

Water Bottle Sponsor: Merrick and Company. 

Coffee Mug Sponsor: Orion’s Belt Engineering. 

Lanyard Sponsor: Holland and Hart, LLP