Humanity is entering a new space race. The focus on Mars and the Asteroid Belt feels similar to the first space race, but the race to build constellations of cheap, low earth orbit satellites feels new and very practical. It has elements of a grand colonization and elements of familiar business models. While governments around the world remain major players, private companies are playing a larger role.  

Our panelists will explore current and future industry trends to expose the direction of this new market. The event will focus on understanding the technologies of space exploration as launch costs decrease, the geopolitical tensions that have always accompanies expansions into new territory, and the economic implications for investors.

Technology:

• What new technologies and capabilities are specifically driving the new space race?
• As costs decrease to venture into space what changes will we see in the future?

Geopolitical:

• How will nations manage conflicting interests in the exploration of space?
• What nations will be contenders and how does the prominence of private actors complicate the geopolitical landscape?

Economic:

• What opportunities and businesses are being enabled?
• Who will be the big winners and losers in the new space race?

Speakers:
Richard Godwin - President, Space Technology Holdings LLC  
Joan Johnson-Freese, Ph.D. - Professor  National Security Affairs, U.S. Naval War College (NWC)
Steven Jorgenson - Managing General Partner, Starbridge Venture Capital
Mark LaPenna - Founder & CEO, Xenesis
Myles Walton - Managing Director and Senior Analyst, Aerospace/Defense, UBS Investment Bank

*Please note distribution of presentation slides is at the discretion of the speaker and may not be available for this event

Speakers:

Richard Godwin has been a serial entrepreneur and businessman since childhood. He has successfully created and built small medium and large companies over several industries in both Europe and North America. He became interested in space exploration when he was seven years old and avidly followed the Apollo Program to land people on the moon as well as many space programs since then. He has served as a director on the board of both the National Space Society and the Space Frontier Foundation. He created and managed an asteroid research program known as “The Watch” which raised funding for asteroid discovery and characterization and presented its findings to the U.S Congress on Capitol Hill.

With his brother Robert, he owns Apogee Books, a space book publishing company which today has over 400 technical space exploration books in print, as well as operating TheSpaceLibrary.com - an enormous repository of space industry data.He has worked as a business consultant for Elon Musk at SpaceX building a business model for their nascent DragonLab spacecraft program. He served as CEO and Director of Zero Gravity Solutions Inc., ostensibly the world’s first public company creating new products and technology on the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station for use on Earth. He also served as CEO and President of Zero Gravity Life Sciences at that time.

Godwin is currently senior managing member of Space Technology Holdings, a California based space technology development company as well as one of its subsidiaries Rideshare2Orbit, a space transportation company. He also serves as a business consultant and Director of several cutting edge NewSpace and aerospace companies.

Dr. Joan Johnson-Freese is a university professor, holds the Charles F. Bolden, Jr. Chair in Science, Space & Technology, and is former chair of the National Security Affairs Department at the Naval War College (NWC). In her faculty capacity she teaches Security Studies to US military officers and security practitioners from the United States and over 50 other countries. She has also been part of the Government Department faculty of Harvard Extension School and Harvard Summer School since 2004, where she teaches courses on Leadership in War and Peace, Grand Strategy and US National Security, and Women, Peace and Security. As a political scientist and educator, her research focuses on space security and Women, Peace & Security. 

She is the author of seven books on space security, the most recent (2016) Space Warfare in the 21st Century: Arming the Heavens and over 100 published articles, many with a particular focus on the Chinese space program. Johnson-Freese has also published multiple articles on aspects of Women, Peace & Security and her book, Women, Peace & Security: An Introduction, was released in December 2018. She regularly works with media including CNN, NPR, The New York Times, ABC, CBS, and Time Magazine on these topics. 

Steven Jorgenson is co-general partner of Starbridge Venture Capital. He is a founding partner of the Space Finance Group, Quantum Space Products, Space Angels Network, and Integrated Space Analytics. Steven is also an active angel investor in numerous other aerospace startups, giving him valuable personal experience as both the Investor and the startup Entrepreneur, as well as extensive experience as a professional investment fund manager. 

Jorgenson is portfolio manager for hedge fund Woodridge Capital, was previously PM for the Viridian Fund for over a decade, and in 2016 he founded Fifth Point Advisors, a Registered Investment Advisor company (RIA) where he continues to serve clients as Investment Advisor Representative. Jorgenson graduated with honors from UW-Madison with degrees in bacteriology, biology, and business.

Mark (M.E.) LaPenna is the founder and CEO of Xenesis, a pioneer in Space based Optical Communications technologies. LaPenna began his career in Data Science and has worked on special projects for Exxon Mobile, Google, Apple, Air Lines Reporting Corporation (ARC), The United States Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and many other start-ups. Prior to founding Xenesis, LaPenna worked for Official Airline Guide in commercializing global aviation data-sets. While there, he envisioned a global flight tracking solution, utilizing satellite technology to bring global flight tracking into the 21st century. After receiving "work product release" from OAG, he left to start On Off Block Inc, a company focused on delivering the world's first Satellite Constellation capable of tracking aircraft from Space. Realizing the size and mission critical nature of the data, and the expenses associated with downlinking this much data, they pivoted from being a data creator, to the World's first commercial Optical Data Transport provider, Xenesis. Xenesis is partnered with Georgia Tech, JPL, NASA and several other companies to deliver the first Global Optical Multilayered Mesh Network System (GOMMNS). This fall, LaPenna will be a guest lecturer at The United States Air Force Academy.