The Space Frontier Foundation today announced the date and location details of the largest, richest and most exciting NewSpace Business Plan Competition to date.
In years past, this competition has been a part of the Space Frontier Foundation’s NewSpace Conference, however, this year the competition will be a stand-alone event on October 24th, 2013, hosted on the Stanford University campus by the Stanford Student Space Initiative, in conjunction with the Space Frontier Foundation, NASA, ATK and the Heinlein Prize Trust.
The competition will be free to attend and the Space Frontier Foundation encourages all its’ advocates and members to take advantage of this unique networking opportunity. The program will consist of 8 company presentations in the morning, followed by lunch, afternoon speakers and industry sessions. Winners will be announced and prizes awarded in the early evening, followed by a networking reception. More information about our judges, sponsors, keynote speakers and additional programming will be available on the NewSpace BPC website in the coming weeks.
The competition received nearly 50 unique entries this year from seed, startup, or early-growth firms from a number of fields. The finalists were announced this past Friday (September 13) and a brief description of each can be found online here.
At the event, the Space Frontier Foundation and the Stanford Student Spaceflight Initiative will be awarding first, second, and third place awards, as well as an ATK-sponsored market sector award for the best plan related to On-Orbit Servicing. In conjunction with the NASA Emerging Space Office, ATK and the Heinlein Prize Trust, the Space Frontier Foundation will award $135,000 of cash prizes to the winners, including a Grand Prize of $100,000.
Additional information about our Sponsors:
The Stanford Student Space Initiative is a group dedicated to changing the space culture at Stanford by cultivating space entrepreneurship and strengthening the Stanford space community. “SSI is really excited that we can collaborate with the Space Frontier Foundation to bring this event to Stanford in Silicon Valley, a growing hub for NewSpace,” commented SSI President, David Gerson.
NASA provides support to the NewSpace Business Plan Competition as part of an effort to foster commercial use of space and expand entrepreneurship in the space economy.
ATK Aerospace Group is the prime contractor and Joint Venture partner in the innovative ViviSat On-orbit Servicing Company. ATK has extensive experience supporting human and space payload missions and specializes in small and micro-satellites, satellite components and subsystems, lightweight space deployables and solar arrays. ATK Aerospace Group is the world’s top producer of solid rocket propulsion systems.
The Space Frontier Foundation is excited to continue its purpose, to unleash the power of free enterprise and lead a united humanity permanently into the Solar System, through great programs such as the NewSpace Business Plan Competition. To learn more about the Space Frontier Foundation, our other programs, or how you can volunteer, please visit spacefrontier.org.
