A scene from the NewSpace conference in Silicon Valley.
A scene from the NewSpace conference in Silicon Valley.

Seattle has been at the forefront of the aerospace industry since its birth, and the industry is now going through a renaissance with the arrival of companies such as SpaceX as well as homegrown upstarts like Jef Bezos-backed Blue Origin.

Now, the region is getting a top conference where leaders in the industry will gather to discuss the biggest developments in aerospace. The NewSpace conference, hosted in Silicon Valley for the past nine years, will take place in Seattle in 2016. The conference will then alternate every year between Silicon Valley and Seattle.

The announcement was made by The Space Frontier Foundation, the Washington State Space Coalition and the Washington State Department of Commerce.

“From the early days of the space age, companies like Boeing and Rocket Research have played an important role in the development of space vehicles and systems here in Washington state,” said Washington Governor Jay Inslee in a press release. “Rocket Research, now Aerojet Rocketdyne, along with innovative companies like Blue Origin, Planetary Resources, SpaceFlight Industries and dozens of others are benefitting from Washington’s unique blend of aerospace know-how and computer science brain power to catalyze an exciting cluster of space industry innovation in the state.”

The aerospace industry in Washington state includes more than 1,350 companies, employing over 132,000 people.

“The Seattle region is gaining momentum as a bona fide hub of space innovation,” said Jason Andrews, founder and CEO of Seattle-based Spaceflight. “We are excited to partner with the Space Frontier Foundation in raising awareness of the Washington state space cluster by bringing NewSpace to Seattle in 2016.”

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