Colorado's aerospace industry ranks2nd in the nation for private sector aerospace employment. With four military commands - Air Force Space Command, Army Space Command, NORAD and USNORTHCOMM - and three space-related Air Force bases, Colorado is a strategic location for the space industry. Along with major Department of Defense facilities and NASA research activities, the states universities are among with worlds best for aerospace engineering. Colorado is also actively cultivating innovation and commercial space opportunities, developing Spaceport Colorado and pursuing federal designation as a test site for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAVs).

Many of the nations major aerospace contractors base important operations in Colorado, including Ball Aerospace, Boeing, ITT Exelis, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, Sierra Nevada Corporation and United Launch Alliance. These companies are leading some of the nations most significant space projects. Sierra Nevada Corporation is changing the commercial space landscape with its Dream Chaser space transportation system, and Lockheed Martin is developing the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle to carry astronauts on deep space missions. Additionally, Ball Aerospace serves as an important anchor, headquartered in the region and serving civil, commercial and military markets. In 2010, NASA awarded contracts totaling more than $1.5 billion to Colorado aerospace companies, earning the state a fourth-place ranking nationally.

More than 400 consulting, engineering, manufacturing and supplier companies provide space-related products and services in Colorado. These companies machine precision parts and manufacture optical and remote sensing equipment; they serve as the innovative backbone of the states aerospace cluster, supplying the primes with instrumentation and composite materials, on the one hand, and taking risks deploying innovative technologies in the marketplace on the other. Fully 69 Colorado companies have won technology development and commercialization grants since 2001 via NASAs Small Business Innovation Research or/Small Business Technology Transfer program, and a further 193 companies have won similar grants to develop technologies for the Department of Defense.

Colorado is at the center of global innovation in the aerospace and space industry, hosting the National Space Symposium annually in Colorado Springs.

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Advanced Industry (AI) Accelerator Programs The AI Accelerator Programs promote growth and sustainability in advanced industries by helping drive innovation, accelerate commercialization, encourage public-private partnerships, increase access to early stage capital and create a strong ecosystem that increases the states global competitiveness.Apply or learn more

Launch! Taking Colorado's Space Economy to the Next LevelPart of Brookings's new Advanced Industries Series, this report finds that the Colorado space economy is a critical driver of economic growth and explores how Colorado can defend and extend its current position as one of the most multidimensional space economies in the nation. Directly employing over 66,000 workers across the military, civil and private domains, the full space enterprise in Colorado contributed some $8.7 billion in value-added output in 2011, in a performance that generated some 3.8 percent of Colorados private-sector gross domestic product. Learn more

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Aerospace Companies in Colorado | Key Industry | OEDIT