Seattle, Washington: "Satellite City"
Washington State, and the Puget Sound region in particular, is an emerging hotbed of space industry entrepreneurship and activity. With a rich tradition of aerospace excellence, a large base of hardware and software engineering talent, a robust community of entrepreneurs and investors, and visionary space leaders who call this area home, the Pacific Northwest is a center of excellence and an engine of innovation for the new, entrepreneurial space age.
In particular, the Seattle area is the global leader in small satellites and mega constellations, with several of the top satellite constellations based here. Also, as cloud computing and satellite networks converge, the top two global cloud service providers, Seattle's Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, have entered the space industry.
Below is a representative list of some of the companies, organizations, events and articles that speak to the rapidly growing space hub around Seattle and in Washington State.
Upcoming Events
Space Happy Hours - Ongoing [Greater Seattle Area]
UW Space Diplomacy Symposium 2023 - November 29, 2022 [Seattle]
PNDC Space Supply Chain Opportunities Conference - December 6, 2023 [Tukwila]
ISU Pacific Northwest Holiday Event - December 6, 2023 [Seattle]
Recent Events
OneEastside Space Innovation Summit - November 2, 2023 [Redmond]
NASA Space Apps Challenge Seattle - October 6-8, 2023 [Seattle]
Annual International Space Station R&D Conference - July 31-August 3, 2023 [Seattle]
Stoke Space COO Kelly Hennig at Space Entrepreneurs - June 21, 2023 [Kent]
UW Space Symposium - May 12, 2023 [Seattle]
State of the Space Industrial Base Workshop - April 4-5, 2023 [Seattle]
Articles & Information
Blue Origin's chief architect lifts the veil on stealth moon startup - Geekwire - October 29, 2023
Stoke Space raises $100 million for reusable rocket development - SpaceNews - October 6, 2023
NASA awards millions to boost technology innovations by small business - GeekWire - June 5, 2023
How power is blazing a trail for America’s space effort — and for nuclear startups - GeekWire - April 5, 2023
NASA’s economic impact report card for Washington state highlights Blue Origin - GeekWire, March 10, 2023
Analyst: New SpaceX funding could mean more work for Redmond Starlink facility - Puget Sound Business Journal, January 8, 2023
Washington state space economy more than doubles - SpaceNews, February 22, 2022
Puget Sound Region Emerging as a Satellite Capital - Puget Sound Business Journal, Sept 4, 2021
Washington State Space Facts
NASA contract awards to companies and organizations in Washington State totaled more than $884 million from 2018-2022.
Washington State space startups have raised more then $900 million.
SpaceX & Amazon have each committed $10 billion to their broadband internet constellations designed and manufactured in Washington State.
Blue Origin's programs include suborbital space tourism, an orbital rocket, a lunar lander, and a private space station.
More than half of all operational satellites in Earth orbit have been manufactured in the greater Seattle area.
Space Companies
Blue Origin – launch vehicles [Kent]
SpaceX – Starlink broadband satellite constellation [Redmond]
Amazon - Kuiper broadband satellite constellation [Redmond]
BlackSky – satellite-powered geospatial imagery, data and analytics [Seattle]
LeoStella - satellite manufacturing [Seattle]
Radian Aerospace - orbital space plane [Renton]
Xplore - building a new architecture for space exploration [Redmond]
Aerojet Rocketdyne – rocket engines [Redmond]
Kymeta – flat-panel antennas and connectivity services for satellites & communication networks [Redmond]
Stoke Space Technologies - launch vehicles [Seattle]
Starfish Space - autonomous space tug [Kent]
RBC Signals – ground station as a service [Redmond]
AWS Ground Station - ground station as a service [Seattle]
Microsoft Azure Orbital - ground station as a service [Redmond]
Gravitics - space station components & modules [Seattle]
Firefly Aerospace - end-to-end space transportation [Bellevue]
Tethers Unlimited – satellite systems and components [Bothell]
Boeing – defense, space & security [Tukwila & Kent]
USNC-Tech – space nuclear power [Seattle]
US Electrodynamics - satellite teleport [Brewster]
Wave Motion Launch - launch services [Seattle]
Integrate Space - SaaS to plan and manage launch services [Seattle]
Karman Space & Defense - Systima – complex engineered space and defense systems and components [Mukilteo]
Janicki Industries – composite and exotic materials for space and other applications [Sedro-Woolley]
Orbite - commercial astronaut training [Seattle]
gravityLab - artificial gravity lab in orbit [Seattle]
Litepulse - space power as a service [Seattle]
Interlune - space natural resources [Tacoma]
Crane Aerospace & Electronics - electrical power solutions for spacecraft [Lynnwood]
Earth and Space Exploration - spaceflight training [Seattle]
First Mode - engineering design services [Seattle]
TLG Aerospace - launch vehicle engineering services [Seattle]
Avaliant – engineering services focused on space and aviation [Bellevue]
Space Exploration Engineering - mission planning, satellite analysis, technical consulting [Friday Harbor]
Off Planet Research - simulates extra-terrestrial environments [Everett]
Rocket Propulsion Systems - rocket engines [Renton]
SPACEAIMS - space-focused analytic reports, seminars and courses [Seattle]
Sienna Technologies - space materials [Woodinville]
LiftPort - space elevator [Tacoma]
Planet Enterprises - space mission design & robotics [Gig Harbor]
Reach Space Technologies - rocket engines [Seattle]
Wibotic - wireless charging for lunar robots [Seattle]
Meraki Space Systems - components and infrastructure [Seattle]
Gravitics - Marysville, WA
Blue Origin - Kent, WA
Space Organizations
Dept of Aeronautics & Astronautics - University of Washington [Seattle]
Space Policy & Research Center - University of Washington [Seattle]
Institute for Space Law, Data & Policy - UW Global Business Law Institute [Seattle]
Washington NASA Space Grant Consortium - expanding STEM with NASA programs [Seattle]
Joint Center for Aerospace Technology Innovation [Seattle]
Space Northwest - supporting space innovation and entrepreneurship
Space Entrepreneurs – 1000+ person space networking and affinity group [Puget Sound region]
Pacific Northwest Defense Coalition (PNDC) - defense & security trade group
Pacific Northwest Aerospace Alliance (PNAA) - aerospace trade group
Aerospace Futures Alliance (AFA) - aerospace advocacy group
Space Apps Seattle - space apps hackathon in the city that unites tech and space [Seattle]
Museum of Flight - [Seattle & Everett, WA]
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory - fundamental research and policy analysis [Richland, WA]
The Atlantis Project - tethered ring for space access [Seattle]
HuskySat - UW students building a CubeSat [Seattle]
Society for Advanced Rocket Propulsion - UW student-run rocket club [Seattle]
AstroPlane - astronavigation system to supplement GPS [Seattle]