Mark your calendars. The 45th International Space Development Conference, ISDC 2027, returns to Los Angeles from Thursday, May 27 to Sunday, May 30, 2027, at the Sheraton Gateway hotel. After its 2026 run on the East Coast, the National Space Society is bringing its flagship conference back to the West Coast. If you are weighing whether to attend, now is the time to act, and for anyone traveling from outside the United States, the planning window is already open.
ISDC 2027 at a Glance: Dates, Venue, and Host
The essentials are set. ISDC 2027 runs four days, May 27 to 30, 2027. The host hotel and conference venue is the Sheraton Gateway Los Angeles Hotel at 6101 West Century Boulevard, a full-service property steps from Los Angeles International Airport. The conference is organized by the National Space Society, which has hosted ISDC for more than four decades. For 2027 the event returns to the same venue that welcomed ISDC 2024, so the floor plan and logistics are already proven.
A West Coast Return
ISDC 2026 closed in McLean, Virginia, in June, inside the Washington, D.C. policy corridor. Moving the 2027 conference to Los Angeles shifts the center of gravity west, into a city that has anchored American aerospace for generations. Southern California holds a dense network of launch companies, satellite builders, and research labs, along with the engineers and students who fill them, and that proximity tends to show up in the room and in the hallway conversations. A western host city also shortens the journey for much of the Pacific Rim, from the aerospace hubs of the western United States to attendees and student teams traveling from Asia and Oceania. For anyone who has wanted to pair a space conference with a few days in Los Angeles, 2027 is the year to do it. The calendar cooperates, too: ISDC 2027 ends on Sunday, May 30, the day before the U.S. Memorial Day holiday on Monday, May 31, so attendees based in the United States can fold in an extra day in the city without spending more time away from work.
What to Expect at ISDC 2027
ISDC is built around a wide, parallel-track program rather than a single stage. In recent years that has meant simultaneous sessions on the Moon, Mars, space settlement, space health, space solar power, planetary defense, space business, and space policy, and others, with attendees moving between rooms across the four days. The conference regularly features keynotes from astronauts, space agency leaders, and industry executives; presents the National Space Society’s awards, including the Space Pioneer Award and the Robert A. Heinlein Memorial Award; and gives students a real platform through competitions such as the Gerard K. O’Neill Space Settlement Contest. The full ISDC 2027 program, tracks, and speaker lineup will be announced in the run-up to the conference.
More Than the Sessions
The talks are only part of the reason people travel to ISDC. The conference typically surrounds its program with an exhibit area where companies and organizations show their work, evening receptions and banquets, and at least one off-site tour to a nearby point of interest. ISDC 2026, for instance, kicked off its week with a visit to the Smithsonian’s hangar facility outside Washington, home to the Space Shuttle Discovery. Just as valuable is the unstructured time. The conference stays small enough that the people on stage are often the same people you end up talking with over coffee, which is a large part of why attendees come back.
International Attendees: Start Planning Now
This is the part that rewards moving early. A sizable share of ISDC’s audience travels in from other countries each year, including many from Romania and India, and for many of them the longest leg of the trip happens before they ever reach an airport. U.S. visa appointment waits vary widely from one country to the next and can stretch for many months, long enough that a decision made in early 2027 may already be too late. If there is any chance you will need a visa, the most useful thing you can do today is begin the process: confirm that your passport will stay valid well past the conference, look up the current interview wait time at your nearest U.S. embassy or consulate, and book the earliest appointment you reasonably can.
To help, the National Space Society can provide an invitation letter to support a U.S. visa application. You can request one, and find fuller guidance for visitors from abroad, on the ISDC invitation letters and international travelers pages.
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For now, the move that matters is the simplest one: hold the dates. Then follow Ad Astra on Instagram, where conference news and space-development coverage land as they happen.
👉 Save the date for ISDC 2027 in Los Angeles
Frequently Asked Questions
Is ISDC 2027 registration open yet?
Not yet. The dates and venue are confirmed; registration opens closer to the event, as it does each year, and the official ISDC 2027 page is where it will appear.
How do international attendees request a visa invitation letter?
The National Space Society issues these letters through two separate forms, one for attendees taking part in an NSS student space contest and one for everyone else, both reachable from the ISDC site’s travel pages. Keep in mind that the letter supports your application rather than replacing it; the application itself is the step that can take the most time.
How many people attend ISDC, and who are they?
ISDC has historically drawn on the order of 800 to 1,000 attendees a year, with several hundred coming from abroad. The crowd is a deliberate mix of aerospace engineers and entrepreneurs, scientists and policy specialists, educators and students, and longtime space advocates. Few conferences gather that range of people under one roof, and that breadth defines ISDC’s character.
Can I present a talk or a poster at ISDC 2027?
In most years ISDC runs an open call for abstracts across its sessions, from technical research to policy to settlement design. The 2027 call and its deadlines will be posted on the ISDC site, so if presenting is your goal, watch for it and build your travel plans, including any visa steps, around an accepted slot.