The 2026 von Braun Space Exploration Symposium

SpaceCom, in collaboration with NASA, focuses on commercialization, procurement, investment, partnerships, and business growth across the space economy. Its tracks cover infrastructure, manufacturing, mobility, market demand, investment trends, procurement priorities, lunar and cislunar initiatives, emerging technologies, commercial low Earth orbit destinations, AI, and autonomy. Program themes include Artemis cadence and architecture, supply-chain readiness, workforce and industrial execution, lunar infrastructure, robotics, human systems, commercial space stations, nuclear power and propulsion, science missions, orbital manufacturing, and space traffic management. Sessions address space-infrastructure co-investment, manufacturing bottlenecks, commercial procurement and scale, policy and governance, spacecraft servicing, cybersecurity, AI-enabled operations, lunar resource systems, and commercial investment. Headline keynotes include invited NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman and retired NASA astronaut Clayton Anderson.

SpaceCom, in collaboration with NASA, brings together government priorities, commercial capability, and industry innovation around procurement, investment, partnerships, business development, and technology commercialization. The program is organized across the SpaceCom: Keynotes, ADVANCE, DISCOVER, EXPLORE, INNOVATE, and TINA Talks streams. Topics include Artemis cadence and architecture; launch logistics and high-cadence access to space; commercial-government co-investment; commercial space stations; spacecraft servicing and lifecycle economics; supply-chain, manufacturing, and infrastructure bottlenecks; workforce and industrial execution; nuclear power and propulsion; cislunar mobility; international partnerships; space traffic management; cybersecurity; AI-enabled mission control; orbital manufacturing and repair; lunar resource utilization; space-resource law; and intellectual-property rights for space-based innovations. Named sessions include “SpaceCom Day 1 Opening Keynotes,” “Invite-Only Executive Forum: From Orbit to Outcome: Why Space Has Become Enterprise Infrastructure,” “Launch Is Logistics: Scaling High-Cadence Access to Space,” “Commercial-Government Co-Investment: How Space Infrastructure Gets Funded,” “Moon Joy! Lessons from the Artemis II Journey,” “The Case for Commercial Space Stations: Innovation Needs Customers,” “Service, Refuel, or Replace? The New Economics of Spacecraft Lifecycles,” “Supply Chain, Manufacturing, and Hidden Infrastructure Bottlenecks,” “Policy, Law, and Governance for the New Space Age,” “Powering the Next Frontier: Nuclear Power and Propulsion,” “Mission Control, Rewritten: When AI Agents Move from Advice to Action,” and “Building the Moon Base.”

The 2027 forum theme, “Resilience in a Changing World,” examines tools, approaches, and breakthroughs intended to strengthen resilience across aerospace, defense, and the broader engineering enterprise amid rapid technological and global change. The program combines technical sessions focused on research and technologies addressing specific problems with plenary and Forum 360 sessions on issues affecting aerospace. It serves civil, commercial, and national security sectors and connects academic, industry, and government professionals. Featured speakers include James Kenyon, Associate Administrator of NASA’s Research and Technology Mission Directorate; Daniel Hettema, Director of Digital Engineering, Modeling & Simulation at the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering; and Sha-Chelle Devlin Manning, Chief of Commercial Strategy at DARPA.

Space Symposium unites global space professionals from military, industry, commercial, and government sectors to examine critical space issues, foster dialogue, and drive innovation. Program tracks include Space Law, Space Science, Space Investment, and Game Changers: AI & Space. Sector coverage includes advanced manufacturing, aerospace systems, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, defense, engineering, finance, satellite systems, space services, space construction, and spaceports and infrastructure. The event includes live speaker programming, exhibit centers, and a virtual platform.

The conference covers four technical tracks: SR-1 and spacecraft reactors, including reactor physics, fuels and materials, power conversion, thermal management, controls, testing and civil, commercial, defense, and science mission applications; LR-1 and planetary surface reactors, including lunar and Mars power architectures, deployment, power distribution, and integration with habitats, mobility, ISRU, and science payloads; Dragonfly and radioisotope power systems, including isotope production, fuel fabrication, testing, safety, and mission operations; and building the space nuclear industrial base, including infrastructure, manufacturing and qualification supply chains, regulatory frameworks, safety, standards, workforce, and industrial partnerships. Special programming includes the 2nd Workshop for Fission Instrumentation and Controls for Space, on sensors, actuators, software, and conditioning electronics, and a special session on innovative spacecraft structures and thermal systems for nuclear propulsion and power, including deployable assemblies, vehicle aggregation, in-space assembly, and mission flexibility. Accepted and presented papers and abstracts will be published in the conference proceedings. Submissions are evaluated for originality, methodological rigor, quality of results, and scientific impact.

A premier aerospace R&D forum exploring the science, technologies, and capabilities transforming aerospace. The 2027 theme, “Resilience in a Changing World,” focuses on adaptation and innovation across aerospace, defense, and the broader engineering enterprise. Featured speakers include Tim Costa, Vice President and General Manager for Industrial and Computational Engineering at NVIDIA; Kerri Phillips, Technical Director for Missiles at Hanwha Defense USA; Will Roper, Founder and CEO of Istari Digital; and Brig. Gen. Douglas P. Wickert, USAF, Commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory.

The conference theme is “Going Critical: Creating a Durable Nuclear Resurgence.” Plenary discussions address how technology, finance, and public policy can sustain nuclear energy momentum, and how public confidence, domestic supply chains, workforce development, investment, and state leadership can support deployment at scale. John Wagner, Laboratory Director at INL, is a featured speaker; the opening plenary also includes U.S. NRC Commissioners Douglas Weaver and Bradley Crowell. The technical program features expert-led presentations and peer-reviewed research on advanced reactors, fuel cycle and waste management, reactor physics, fusion, AI and machine learning, materials science, instrumentation and controls, criticality safety, and robotics. Named session topics include nuclear energy markets, financing and economics; hybrid and integrated energy systems; maritime and data center applications; nuclear safeguards; cybersecurity; molten salt reactor fuels and materials; and advanced/additive manufacturing. Panels address uranium mining remediation, environmental review, digital twins, advanced reactor fuel supply and fabrication, and nuclear deployment pathways.

The symposium focuses on space and missile defense, with organization updates from Space and Missile Defense Command, Space Command, Golden Dome for America’s Direct Report Program Manager, T2COM, CUAS, Northern Command, PAE Fires, the Missile Defense Agency, and space and missile defense companies. Panel themes include SPACECOM, Missile Defense System Next, International Space, INDOPACOM, industry, next-generation space and missile defense, and PAE Fires. The program also includes a technology track with technical paper presentations, a small-business showcase, and an exhibit hall featuring technology and products.

The 2026 conference marks NTSA’s 60th anniversary and centers on the U.S. Army lead-service theme, “Beyond the Battlefield: Training Readiness and Lethality for All-Domain Dominance!” The program combines executive presentations, technical papers, tutorials, professional development workshops, special events, and Next Big Thing talks focused on modeling, simulation, training, education, AI, autonomous systems, synthetic environments, operational test and evaluation, acquisition modernization, digital engineering, digital twins, cyber and information warfare, and the defense industrial base. Featured content includes an Industry Keynote by Brandon Tseng, President & Co-Founder, Shield AI; a Featured Government Keynote by Amy Henninger, SES, Ph.D., Director, Operational Test and Evaluation (DOT&E), DoW; and senior-leader discussions involving LTGEN Austin, USMC; MAJ GEN Cropsey, USAF; and MAJ GEN Smith, USSF. Special events include the Congressional M&S Caucus; Digital First discussions on defense acquisition through AI, digital engineering, simulation, and digital twins; Building an AI Ready Military Force; a Naval Aviation Flag Officer Panel; NATO mission-space digital twins; Air Force maintenance training; cyber, electromagnetic, wargaming, and information warfare; and program briefs on training acquisition and the All-Domain Marine. The program also includes perspectives from government, industry, academia, and international partners.