ASCENDxTexas 2026 will focus on the innovation and adaptation necessary to navigate the evolving space economy–from policy discussions to commercial challenges and changing timelines, the next giant leap starts here. More information coming soon.
Event Tag: space
2025 ASCEND (Accelerating Space Commerce, Exploration, and New Discovery)
Join us 22–24 July 2025 to access inspiring sessions and premium content, develop valuable business leads, and make meaningful connections. More details on 2025 ASCEND will be available soon.
Women in Aerospace: Nagin Cox, NASA Spacecraft Operations Engineer
The Portland State AIAA Student Branch is excited to host Nagin Cox virtually on February 25th! Nagin has been exploring since she decided as a teenager that she wanted to work at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She was born in Bangalore, India, and grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Nagin has held leadership and system engineering positions on interplanetary robotic missions including the Galileo mission to Jupiter, the Mars Exploration Rovers, the Kepler exoplanet hunter, InSight, the Mars Curiosity Rover and now the 2020 Perseverance Rover. She was also involved in the MOXIE (Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment) team which will prototype making oxygen on Mars from the Martian atmosphere. She is currently a Tactical Mission Lead on the Mars Curiosity Rover as well as the Mars2020 Perseverance Rover.
This event is in collaboration with WIS, SWE, VRS, SHPE, and MENASA Program Initiative and was funded with the help of AIAA.
Aerospace Insider Podcast: Episode 1 (Working at NRO)
Members of NRO’s workforce cadre give us a rare behind-the-scenes account of what it’s like to work at the secretive agency that acquires and operates U.S. imaging and signals intelligence satellites. Hear about their motivations, career paths and why they wouldn’t choose to work anywhere else.
ASCENDxWebinar: Accelerating Pathways to Space
We’re talkin’ “eat-my-cosmic-dust” orders of magnitude fast.
Strap in with ASCEND and guest experts from Axiom, NASA, and the Fusion Industry Association for a three-hour crash course in how fundamental systems are being transformed fast to help humans adapt to life in space.
Learn the latest about laser-accelerated data communications, the soon-to-be reality of infinitely renewable clean energy, and the engineering of machines and methods to capitalize on these revolutionary advances and rapidly scale up the LEO infrastructure needed to supply and sustain our off-world future.
Woosh.
Summit Agenda
This three-and-a-half hour program will include two webinars and a panel discussion.
Who Should Attend?
ASCEND is building on-ramps to space for everyone. No matter where you’re headed in the off-world future, this ASCENDxSummit will get you there faster.
How Does it Work?
The Summit is a three-and-a-half hour program presented entirely online.
What Will You Learn?
How extraordinary advances in energy, data and infrastructure engineering will enable humans to build, work and live in space.
*This ASCENDxSummit is FREE to attend. As the Summit date nears, we’ll send you instructions to log on
2021 ASCEND (Accelerating Space Commerce, Exploration, and New Discovery)
Event: ASCEND
Date: 8–17 November 2021
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada & ONLINE
Official Website: ascend.events
Call for Content: Call for Content
Accelerating Space Commerce, Exploration, and New Discovery
Building a sustainable off-world future requires the collective effort of a diverse global community of students and professionals with the ideas, skills and passions to solve complex problems and inspire new ways of thinking. That’s why more than 3,000 technical experts, executives, entrepreneurs, and engineers — from classrooms through careers — attended the inaugural 2020 ASCEND last November. Plan now to join us for the 2021 edition. The universe is expanding, and ASCEND is your space.
ASCENDxSummit: Accelerating the Next-Generation Workforce
The space economy is booming. Let’s get to work!
Who’s now? Who’s next? ASCEND is helping to build the most technically, intellectually, professionally, and culturally diverse workforce pipeline on the planet!
This three-session FREE ASCENDxSummit will bring together futurists, educators, and motivators from classrooms through careers to address current needs and future opportunities for EVERYONE to succeed in space.
Looking to make your mark in the universe?
U.S. Space Force Overview (Member Exclusive Webinar)
March 2021 Topic: U.S. Space Force Overview
AIAA Members: make sure you are signed in to the site with your member credentials to be able to register to watch the on demand recording.
This briefing will provide a snapshot of who the US Space Force is, what it does, how it is structured, and most importantly, what’s happening in the space domain. The Chief Space Experimental for the US Air Force Research Lab, Dr. Lawrence “Robbie” Robertson, will be giving the briefing. Dr. Robertson is an AIAA Associate Fellow and Director of the Space and Missile Group in the Technical Activities Committee within AIAA.
Students are encouraged to attend this webinar.
This event is offered exclusively to AIAA members. Want to learn more about the benefits of AIAA membership?
Space Policy Pod: Episode 17 (Ann Devereaux, NASA JPL)
Ann Devereaux is Division Manager for Systems Engineering for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Systems Engineering Division, which includes both project and spacecraft systems engineering from proposal formulation and initial design through integration, test, and launch operations. Ann served as lead spacecraft systems engineer for Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover as well as most recently for the initial design phase of the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover. She has over 25 years of experience with both technology demonstrations and flight programs, designing and building custom high-reliability electronics for radios and instruments.
Aerospace Insider Podcast: Episode 2 (Creating Ingenuity)
Although NASA’s Perseverance rover landed on Mars, it can’t begin its task of analyzing and caching samples of Martian rocks and soil until it dispatches the little hitchhiker in its belly, known as the Mars Helicopter Ingenuity. This tiny rotorcraft could point the way toward a whole new way to explore the red planet. Cat Hofacker spoke to Bob Balaram, the chief engineer for Ingenuity.