UND hosts space industry leaders for annual Space Ops Summit
Topics range from hypersonic research to NASA’s Artemis program to ‘deorbiting’ the International Space Station, and beyond
In November, UND welcomed space industry executives, national security partners, researchers and students to campus for the second installation of the annual Space Operations Summit (SoS).
According to the SoS website, the Summit provides a “platform for exchanging ideas, insights, and best practices for advancing space operations and ensuring the long-term sustainability of the space environment.” Held at the Memorial Union, the summit showcased UND’s growing role as a national hub for aerospace and defense collaboration.
In videotaped remarks, North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer said Grand Forks is a driver of innovation in space.
“We have a top-notch university, a business-friendly state and major defense investments,” Cramer said. “It’s the perfect breeding ground for innovation out here in Washington.”
President Andrew Armacost, in his introductory remarks, mentioned UND’s partnership with the U.S. Space Force, as well as the University being named to the top tier of research universities. These developments, along with the University in May signing an educational partnership agreement with the U.S. Space Development Agency, show the University is committed to partnering with different entities to drive advancement in space research.
“The work that’s happening both with manned and unmanned space operations and space flight are nationally significant here at the University of North Dakota,” Armacost said.
Speaking first at the summit was Marshall Smith, CEO of Starlab Space Stations and a former 37-year NASA executive and engineer.
The global space community is approaching a pivotal transition as the International Space Station nears its end of service, potentially by 2030, Smith noted.
“On Sunday, we celebrated 25 years of continuous human presence in space,” he said. “The ISS is coming to an inflection point … The point is, the ISS has to be deorbited in a very known way. It’ll take a couple of years to deorbit, so you have to plan for this.”
And after that deorbiting? Smith outlined how Starlab Space, backed by Voyager Space and international partners, is advancing a next-generation commercial space station to ensure research continuity, strengthen national security and expand global collaboration.
Though the U.S. leads a global collaboration in space, that domain is increasingly being contested, Smith said. He called for American leadership in space research and cautioned against stagnation.
“We don’t want to just maintain what we have. We want to move forward; we want to leap forward,” he said. “And that’s what Starlab is designed to do.”
Across the rest of the summit, leaders from Starlab, Iridium, NASA, Northrop Grumman and others spoke and led panels on cutting-edge space-related topics. The full agenda can be found on the SoS website.
UND also fielded several speakers on a panel at the Summit, to talk about the Rendezvous & Operations for Autonomous Docking and Servicing, or ROADS satellite mission. The speakers recapped the history of the project, which got off the ground — literally — in June via a SpaceX launch.
The panel discussion included Ronald Fevig, associate professor of Space Studies; Pablo de León, chair of Space Studies; James W. Wade, professor of Mechanical Engineering; and Morgan Giuseponi, project manager of the Space Operations Group at UND. Also sitting in on the panel discussion was Ramon Blanco Maceiras, the U.S. head of space at Added Value Solutions.
UND’s satellites were developed in collaboration with AVS USA, an engineering firm headquartered in both upstate New York and Spain. They are low Earth orbit satellites orbiting at an altitude of approximately 300 miles above Earth’s surface.
The pair of satellites can detach and reattach to each other, and tests the technology needed to accomplish that feat.
