Experts from the military, NASA and private business sounded the call to action at a Thursday luncheon during the 40th Space Symposium at The Broadmoor. The luncheon was hosted by Space Workforce for Tomorrow, a strategic initiative of the Space Foundation that aims to confront the talent gap and develop a highly skilled, mission-ready workforce.
Swisspod, an international hyperloop company that builds energy-efficient, high-speed transportation solutions, is expanding into Colorado Springs with plans for a new manufacturing and assembly facility.
With China making rapid advances in space technology and other adversaries trying to limit America's presence in space, the U.S. now faces a national imperative, experts said.
"It's a pivotal moment. The future requires that the workforce is agile, that it's the highest skilled we've ever had, that it's ready to lead us into the next era, and that we're not just preparing the next generation (but) we're building the best space workforce the world has ever seen," Space Workforce for Tomorrow Executive Director Melanie Stricklan said.
Exceeding the challenge requires collaboration between industry, governments, nonprofits and academia, leaders said Thursday.
Urgency in Space
The leader of NASA, lawmakers and other thought-leaders in space gathered Sunday afternoon ahead of the 40th Space Symposium and emphasized the importance of moving quickly in space to defeat Russia and China, replacing the International Space Station and modernizing missile defenses.
The Space Report issued last week states private space sector employment growth slowed in 2024, increasing in five key sectors only 1.1% from 2023 to 2024, based on initial estimates from the first half of last year.
It's the slowest growth rate since a contraction of the sector in 2016, the report said, but that may only be temporary.
Almost 74% of a range of space companies surveyed by Space Workforce for Tomorrow and Space Foundation said they are hiring for new roles, and 84% expect continued hiring over the next three to five years.
Five-year growth for the industry has also been much more substantial, increasing 18% from 2019 to 2024, the report said.
The 'Golden Dome'
President Donald Trump's vision for updating missile defense could bring investment to Colorado.
Growth in U.S. space-sector employment has exceeded overall growth in the private sector, increasing 27% in the last decade to the private sector's 14.3%.
Steady workforce growth and the tens of thousands of applications submitted every year for industry-related graduate research fellowships and internships reflect persistent interest among potential talent.
Despite the "dynamic environment" for federal employees, who have faced thousands of job cuts in the first months of 2025 under President Donald Trump's efforts to decrease the size of the federal workforce, NASA fielded 35,000 applications for its latest internship program, said Joseph Pelfrey, director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.
"That's amazing recognition for understanding there is still an interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) from our students and we have to continue to foster that."
Another 16,000 young Americans applied for a graduate research fellowship from the National Science Foundation this year, Heather Wilson, president of the University of Texas at El Paso, said in her keynote speech. Wilson served as the 24th secretary of the Air Force and is also a former congresswoman.
“The International Space Station is dead; long live the International Space Station” may well be what headlines read five years from now after the landmark space station is decommissioned and de-orbited.
Astroscale U.S. is working to make satellites last longer in space. Its first client? The U.S. military.
The challenge lies in funding these fellowships and fostering a more robust education-to-workforce pipeline.
Of those 16,000 research fellowship applicants, only 1,000 of them were funded, Wilson said.
"The next time someone says to you, 'Well, there's really not enough interest and talent in the United States that wants to study advanced science and engineering,' (remember that) one out of 16 actually get funded. That is a problem."
Wilson criticized educational institutions that pride themselves on their exclusivity and urged space businesses to lower barriers to employment by offering paid internships and job placement services. A lack of equitable access means the space industry is shutting out talented individuals of lower socioeconomic status, she said.
Most students, more than 90%, attend college within 200 miles of where they were raised, often in the same state in which they live. Fewer than 1% of American students attend Ivy League universities, and fewer than 7% attend universities with strict admission requirements, Wilson said.
A Stanford University study of its 2024 freshman class shows only 16.9% of all first-year students across the nation's some 4,000 higher-education institutions came from families making $60,000 a year or less. Compare that with the 2022 median national household income of about $77,000, she said.
"Unfortunately, talent is evenly distributed but opportunity is not," Wilson said. "… You are more likely to graduate from college if you graduated high school in the lowest 20% academically and the highest 20% socioeconomically than the reverse. We need to change that, because that's where the challenge is."
America must prioritize long-term workforce development across the sciences and engineering fields, she said. Educational institutions should partner with space businesses and agencies to create new curriculums, better teach students science and engineering fundamentals, and better foster interest in the space industry, experts said.
Heather Nelson, director of Club for the Future, American space technology company Blue Origin's K-12 STEAM education nonprofit, said as well as hiring professionals with higher education degrees, her company has also focused on hiring professionals without degrees but who are skilled in manufacturing trades.
"What has changed for us is that we're not just designing space flight vehicles. We are designing, building and testing them. You need people who have these skilled trades," Nelson said.
Shea Ferring, chief technology officer at Firefly Aerospace, a Texas-based company that builds orbital vehicles and has a Colorado Springs office, said education only goes so far. Students must also have passion and determination, crucial components for success in the challenging space industry.
"If (an applicant does not) have the wisdom (or industry) experience … how do you hire? You look at their passion," he said. "That also has to be coupled with grit. This is really hard. If you don't enjoy falling on your face daily and getting back up, Firefly is probably not for you. You just have to literally embrace it."
Maj. Gen. Timothy A. Sejba, commander of the U.S. Space Force's Space Training and Readiness Command, told industry leaders in the audience that they also play a crucial part in workforce readiness. Headquartered at Peterson Space Force Base, the command prepares U.S. Space Force forces for combat.
"We need to understand just how much this space industry has changed over the last five to 10 years. There’s innovation happening everywhere you turn," he said. " ... Some of what we’re doing right now to scan the horizon (for threats or other scientific or technological surprises) starts with all of you in industry. Ten years ago, we probably would have had a couple dozen companies we could turn to regularly when we sought proposals. Now, we’re going to 100 companies every time we need a proposal."
© 2025 The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
