SmallSat Show & SMD 2023

On August 4, a week full of space activities launched me from Seattle to Logan UT. From Logan I would head to Atlanta and from Atlanta to Rocket City Alabama, home of the endearing baseball team the Trash Pandas. The past week has been an absolute blast, full of industry and leadership engagement, future-state brainstorming, new connections, and reconnecting with old friends. The Small Satellite Conference and the Space and Missile Defense Symposium were nothing short of stellar.?

As one of the few conferences with weekend educational tracks, the Small Satellite Conference (SmallSat) in Logan UT made the perfect precursor to the Space and Missile Defense Symposium. At the Utah State University Aggies recreation center, leaders and academics gathered to share the latest developments in their small satellite portfolios and attendees engaged in lively discussions about the new art of the possible.

From materials sciences to technologies and techniques it was clear from the start on Saturday there are rapid advancements happening in virtually all small satellite technologies. The show offered opportunities to gather intel and collect competitive intelligence while listening to academic presentations and networking with industry members. The highlight of the show was getting an opportunity to connect with the ThermaSat Inc. team Matthew Nolan Nathan Blaylock Jack M. and Christopher Castelli in person.

On top of the industry and academia engagement, I connected with some fantastic folks from both the United States Naval Academy as well as the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and learned all about the Navy’s use of Small Satellite technology at the NewSpace Systems networking event. Bernie Kelm #SemperGumby Bill Raynor

After a quick two days in #LoganUT, I hopped on to a flight out to Atlanta with the the goal of getting to Huntsville Alabama soon after. Little did I know the whole trip was about to get way more interesting! I arrived in Atlanta during some heavy rain and eastern storms, and I was ill prepared for what was about to become one of my greatest conference trip adventures yet.?

I was headed to the Space and Missile Defense Symposium to represent ThermaSat at the #SmallBusiness showcase..... but would I get to #Huntsville on time?!

Or at all???

Upon arrival in Atlanta many of the flights to Alabama were canceled.

By then it was the middle of the night on Monday, and I wondered how I would manage to make it to Huntsville for #SMD2023 on time, I overheard a couple of folks behind me in line chatting about the situation and turned out they too were headed to Huntsville. Before?I knew it we had joined forces to get to Alabama together.

With a ragged clutch of stranded travelers who would become new friends, I embarked on a quest that would take more than 4 hours with a Lyft driver driving in foggy conditions through the middle of the night. Luckily this grand adventure would land me at my hotel in Huntsville in the wee morning hours of Tuesday, just a few hours before my first scheduled meeting.

I do have to give a shout out to Delta Air Lines for the grand finale. They delivered my suitcase to the nearby Huntsville airport also?before my first scheduled meeting.?

After refreshing and rebooting with a coffee and a shower I blasted off to Rocket City off to my first meetings of the day and later made my way to the Von Braun Center downtown for the first full day of the show.

Let me be the first to tell you, Rocket City is out of this world! If you haven’t been I highly recommend the Space and Missile Defense Symposium. With over 200 + exhibitors, tech tracks, small business features, leadership panels, futures discussions, and top-notch networking opportunities, the show is an annual attraction to the Huntsville area.?

#smdsymposium managed to pack more than a a week's worth of material into two hyperpaced days of engagement.

From the first moment I stepped into the Von Braun Center to present ThermaSat’s technologies for the Huntsville HASBAT I was meeting connections I made remotely over the past several years for the first time. Leigh Christian

Rish Wood

Barry Tucker

Craig Cates

William Dickson

Hal Aldridge and so many more.

Huntsville packed non-stop action.

I had the pleasure of making some fantastic new connections too!!

Ryan Wilson

Clay Coleman

Jonathan H.

And connecting with old friends too

Greg Hicks

Todd Briggs

Edward Spenceley

Sal Detruit and others.?

After two days chalk full of compelling content and captivating conversations, my grand space adventure came to an end on Thursday the 10th. The return home was comparably uneventful but left me with time to catch up on some much-needed sleep and post-event follow up.?

Huge thanks to all the #stars for aligning and making the whole week of events come together, one way or another.

The two shows were extremely well coordinated and provided much more than food for thought.

I can’t wait to take off to the next space-based event!?

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