The halls and chambers of Colorado’s Capitol will be filled with talk of rockets, satellites, planetary science and astronomy Monday.
March 23 is , when the science, engineering and ingenuity of the state’s space industry — and how space impacts our daily lives — takes center stage.
The goal, board member Joe Rice said, is to educate the public while also getting more lawmakers to advocate for Colorado aerospace.
“It gives legislators an opportunity to learn about the important work we do here in Colorado like GPS, weather satellites and spacecraft,” said Rice, who is also Lockheed Martin’s director of government relations. “When you inform the legislators, they’re connected with other people in the community … and then we get requests to come and talk to their chambers of commerce and talk to their schools.
“We find when people learn about these things, they see the value in supporting aerospace and a good business climate.”
Despite the state’s collective aerospace and space science communities being — NASA’s Orion Exploration Flight Test-1, NASA’s MAVEN and the Rosetta comet landing — Colorado isn’t the first state that comes to mind when space exploration is mentioned.
It’s a big problem, said Stacey DeFore, CSBR chairwoman.
“I did not know that I could work for an aerospace company here in Colorado growing up here as a kid,” she said. I thought that’s what people in Florida or Houston did … so as a mom of a 9-year-old daughter, I want to make sure that she knows that she can stay here in Colorado and be an integral piece of the space program.”
Aerospace Day aims to bolster the state’s reputation. The public is invited to attend the free “space fair” and talk firsthand to the people involved in space exploration. Booths from companies like Lockheed Martin Space Systems, United Launch Alliance, Ball Aerospace, Sierra Nevada Space Systems, top colleges and universities and several space advocacy groups such as will be set up inside the Capitol.
These companies and groups also will be meeting with lawmakers to discuss legislative support to help grow the state’s space economy.
As a result of meetings during the 2014 event, Gov. John Hickenlooper signed into law a that removed a competitive barrier, said Frank Backes, CEO of Colorado Springs-based .
“The tax was basically putting Colorado companies at a disadvantage compared to some of our counterparts in California, Florida and Texas,” Backes said. “That change had a direct effect on the space industry here in Colorado, and that kind of awareness — and the willingness to support that kind of legislation — is one of the purposes of the space day at the Capitol.”
About 169,810 Coloradans are employed in space-related jobs with the state’s nearly 500 aerospace companies and suppliers, making the state the top in the nation for per-capita aerospace employment, according to data from the Colorado Space Coalition.
The industry also generates an annual payroll of $3.2 billion in Colorado, according to the CSC.
Aerospace Day activities start at the Capitol with a 9 a.m. breakfast and continue through the day, concluding with an afternoon reception at Katie Mullen’s restaurant. It is open and free for the public.
Laura Keeney: 303-954-1337
