As the backbone of space exploration and commercial activity, spaceports are facing unprecedented demand, technological advancements, and regulatory challenges. This session will explore how spaceports are evolving into economic powerhouses, driving innovation, job creation, and commercial expansion.
Key topics will include:
- The Spaceport Paradox – Addressing infrastructure challenges and funding gaps despite increasing launch demand.
- Next-Generation Infrastructure – Innovations in launch pads, reusability, and integration of emerging technologies.
- Regulatory and Policy Evolution – How governments, international coalitions, and private stakeholders can streamline policies to support new spaceports.
- Economic Growth & Investment – Spaceports as catalysts for regional and national competitiveness.
- The Global Spaceport Network – The need for resilient, distributed launch sites to ensure uninterrupted access to space.
With increasing congestion at traditional launch sites and growing recognition of space’s role in national security, commerce, and scientific progress, this session will bring together industry leaders, policymakers, and innovators to explore solutions that will define the future of spaceport development.
To create a truly impactful and memorable environment for attendees, the Spaceports session is being completely reimagined as an Interactive Community Round-Table Forum.
This highly engaging experience transforms our expert speakers into Spaceport Synergy Sector Specialists and elevates our audience members into active Spaceport Community Stakeholders. Join us for a fluid, high-level collaborative dialogue designed to spark real action and long-term impact.
| Hyper-Interactive Town-Hall Forum · 2:00 pm – 6:00 pm | |
| 2:00 pm |
ISDC Spaceports: Hyper-Interactive Town-Hall Forum
Strap in for a structural seismic shift in spaceport sessions. No mere panels or prescriptive presentations—dive into a hyper-immersive, inclusive town hall where all attendees are empowered stakeholders. Emerging from this intensive alignment session, participants will synthesize a Positive Position Paper and Action Agenda to directly accelerate spaceport infrastructure, ecosystems, and cross-sector commercialization.
Sequential Time Blocks
• Step 1. Information: Establishing the context for global-to-local alignment • Step 2. Investigation: Tactical deep dives into infrastructure • Step 3. Ideation: Rapid development and prioritized tactics • Step 4. Innovation: SOLUTIONeering™ and commercialization of emerging tech • Step 5. Integration: Sister-Sector Synergy to unify multi-domain pipelines • Step 6. Implementation: Launching the Ecosystem with an Actionable Agenda • Step 7. Impact: Securing Sovereign Supremacy in Space-for-Earth solutions Speaker Sector SMEs Andrew Nelson (VP - Aerospace, RS&H), Annette Parks (Space Licensing Principal, Zeno Power Systems, Inc.), Jared Freedman (Founder & CEO, Orbital Bridge LLC), Khalia Padilla (CEO, Imagine Engine Studios), James Anthony Wolff (Partner, Greenspoon Marder LLP), Ray Leonard (Consulting Engineer, Independent), Tony Boone (Director of Tourism & Economic Development & Spaceport, City of Sierra Vista), Moderator: Robert Katz — World Innovation Network |
| 6:00 pm — End of Spaceports Session | |
Spaceports
Session Chair Info
Robert Katz
CEO and Executive Director of the World Innovation Network
Robert Katz is a visionary leader and strategist dedicated to advancing space innovation, national security, and education. With nearly four decades of experience in space strategy, technology, and policy, Katz has played a pivotal role in shaping the future of space exploration and development. As the CEO and Executive Director of the World Innovation Network (WIN), a nonprofit space think tank, Katz has been instrumental in fostering global collaboration and Read More
Spaceports
Session Speakers Info
Kirsten Bauernschmidt
Project Engineer, The Aerospace Corporation
Kirsten Bauernschmidt is a Project Engineer at The Aerospace Corporation. Her primary role is to support and technically advise civil agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Office of Commercial Space Transportation as well as the United States Space Force on Spaceport of the Future (SOTF) modernization efforts such as architecture and infrastructure. Prior to joining Aerospace, Kirsten worked at Relativity Space, supporting USSF requirements and FAA 450 launch licensing requirements. Kirsten also worked Read More
Tony Boone
Director of Tourism & Economic Development & Spaceport, City of Sierra Vista
Tony has served the City of Sierra Vista in Economic Development since 2017. As of 2023, he is now the Director, overseeing business retention, expansion, attraction programs, tourism strategies, Association of Defense Communities and DoD’s Office of Local Defense Community Cooperation. Tony is the Director for the Air and Space Port in licensing and future growth. He is a retired US Army military intelligence colonel with combat experience in both Read More
Leah Cheli Doolittle
Executive Director, EarthLight Foundation
Leah Cheli Doolittle is a Florida corporate attorney and an Air & Space Law student at the University of Mississippi School of Law. Compelled by the exponential development of “NewSpace” and a desire to be a part of it, she took the bar to become a licensed attorney in 2021 to leverage her corporate and legal expertise to influence the development of space law, policy, and culture. Leah joined the Read More
Sahda Haroon
Student, Purdue University
Sahda Haroon is an undergraduate researcher at the Warsinger Water Laboratory at Purdue University, working on hydrogen liquefaction for lunar settlements. As a senior in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, she also conducts research at Purdue’s Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories on ammonia combustion for aviation gas turbine engines. She recently completed a co-op at Rocket Factory Augsburg (RFA) in Germany, where she worked in propulsion engineering for Helix—their staged-combustion rocket engines. Read More
Wanjiku Chebet Kanjumba
CEO, Vicillion
Wanjiku Chebet Kanjumba is an aerospace engineer, futurist, and space enthusiast with a deep passion for advancing humanity’s presence in space and expanding space accessibility. She holds degrees in Aerospace Engineering, including a Bachelor’s and Master’s, with a minor in Space Operations. She is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering alongside certifications in Engineering Leadership, Engineering Innovation, and Engineering Project Management. She contributes to groundbreaking projects such as the Read More
Jack Kennedy
Docent, U.S. Space Force Museum
Jack Kennedy is a forward-looking voice at the intersection of technology, infrastructure, and space, driven by a clear belief that humanity’s next great expansion will run as much on data as it does on rockets. His work centers on advancing space-based data centers and orbital infrastructure—treating space not as a frontier, but as the next layer of Earth’s digital backbone. A former Virginia Spaceport Authority officer and state legislator, he Read More
Alejandro Merle Otero
Founder, StarHorizon
Operating somewhere between Brooklyn, San Juan, and whatever dimension hosts the next civilization upgrade, Zen is a multi-planetary systems architect disguised as a creative producer. Founder of StarHorizon Takes-U-Places Inc. and a driving force behind Footprints of Peace, he is the kind of operator who can coordinate AR activations, peace movements, and space infrastructure concepts in the same meeting. His work lives at the intersection of XR as consciousness interface, Read More
Doug Owens
Founder and Managing Partner, Space Outcomes LLC
Doug is the founder and managing partner of Space Outcomes LLC. Doug is on a mission to help bring about a Star Trek future for the benefit of humanity, and his current focus is on helping to capitalize excited New Space projects. During his government contracting career, Doug helped build and run Coverent, an intelligence community startup who won consistently again big integrators like Leidos and CACI. He held executive Read More
Michael Dean Puckett
Regulatory Compliance Expert
Highly experienced environmental enforcement professional with 30+ years of progressive responsibility across state regulatory agencies in Virginia and West Virginia. Demonstrated expertise in applying complex state and federal environmental statutes (e.g., VA §10.1-13, 9 VAC, Chapter 22 WV Code, 33 CSR 38 CSR, 47 CSR, US 30 CFR, and 40 CFR) across multiple regulatory domains including NPDES, stormwater, solid waste, hazardous waste, mine reclamation, groundwater protection and air quality. Recognized Read More
Theresa Quitto-Dickerson
Senior Program Manager, Office of Space Commerce
Theresa Quitto-Dickerson serves as the Commercial Space Policy & Industry Strategy Lead in the Policy, Advocacy & International Division at the Office of Space Commerce. She designs enterprise-level decision architectures that enable leadership to navigate complex regulatory, economic, and interagency space environments with clarity and discipline. Her portfolio advances cross-cutting commercial space initiatives that strengthen U.S. competitiveness, enhance regulatory sequencing visibility, and align industry engagement with national economic and strategic Read More
Dr. Mark A. Skinner
Senior Project Leader, Space Traffic Management
Dr. Mark Skinner is internationally recognized as a researcher in space object characterization and commercial space situational awareness. He currently participates in The Aerospace Corporation’s effort to support the transition of space traffic coordination (STC) from the Defense realm to the Civil. For almost two decades he supported research efforts at the AMOS facility on Maui, Hawaii, and now supports STC in Washington, DC. For its duration, he supported the Read More
James Anthony Wolff
Partner, Greenspoon Marder LLP
James Anthony Wolff is a partner at Greenspoon Marder LLP and a space, AI, and emerging technologies attorney focused on the legal and capital architecture of frontier industries. His work spans space policy, planetary defense finance, and the structuring of mission-driven ventures operating at the intersection of law, science, and long-term risk. In 2023, he was a co-founder recipient of a NASA award for advanced space systems research, followed by Read More