New Space Accelerator Looks To Establish Space Innovation Pipeline

The Artemis age of the space race will see commercial space grow by leaps and bounds.

The pace picks up as both public-private partnership demands accelerate accessibility to space is empowered through new feats in reusable rocketry and the advent of SpaceX.

For the New Space Nexus, this is ample opportunity to find the brightest minds of new age Instellar pursuit and fund a space innovation pipeline.

An Alliance of Innovators

The New Space Alliance has members all over the United States. It is based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a state that has proven with recent events, such as the Spaceport America Cup, and its historic connections, on display at the New Mexico Space Museum, to have a legacy in the pioneering of the stars.

The alliance self-describes as a "voluntary group of stakeholders" across the scope of commercial industry, government, and academia. Members come together for the common purpose of advancing the space industry, along with the opportunities it will provide vested parties as a whole. An interested potential member has to fill out a survey to be considered.

Some VIPs of space innovation who also happen to be alliance members include Ball Aerospace, NASA, the AirForce Research Laboratory Maker Hub, Virgin Galactic, Star Harbor, the Space Force Association, Small Sat Alliance, and enablers such as Phoenix Venture Partners.

The Ignitor's Funding Ambition

As part of the alliance, the New Space Ignitor kicks off to establish its trademarked plan to "unit and ignite" space (note, no real fires took place in space in generating this effort, as there is no oxygen to fuel the flames.) The Ignitor boasts of putting forth a funding effort to accelerate space innovation to generate $42 million in funding and contract wins over 18 months.

The new Space Ignitor team can work with hundreds of innovators, and reach out beyond the bounds of the organization to tap into resources that make the effort possible, the NewSpace Nexus CEO Casey Anglada DeRaad wrote in the opening statement of the Ignitor's printed brochure.

What the Program Does

The program comes with perks, including services that assess a company's readiness levels to compete, guidance opportunities to reach goals, advances in product development, prep for company showcasing, marketing, and more. All of this is facilitated by the NewSpace Ingitor Team, and judges who participated in the Ignitor AAA pitch.

Participants

In autumn 2023, Space News noted that the accelerator program had finally reached its "stride", after developing over five years, and the payoff shows in the spring 2024 program's participation.

In Spring 2024, the Ingitor program featured such as Goodman vTechnologies, an Albuquerque-based cutting-edge robotically manufactured ceramics crafter. This company deals in various production of nanocomposite material manufacturing, and boasts of crafting the "world's first 3-D carbon nanotube nanoforest." A nano-forest is a spiky formation of nanotubes that are used in scientific research to enhance experiments such as looking deeper into cells and sensing humidity.

Others included Aphelion Aerospace, which boasts of having "cracked the code" on producing eco-friendly propulsion systems that don't compromise performance. Aphelion is also known as a nanosatellite service because it standardizes and produces "off-the-shelf" nanosatellites that can be sent into orbit in a cost-effective and green manner, which the entity believes will "revolutionize" commercial satellite access to space.

This article is not a direct endorsement of the New Space Alliance or the Ignitor.