Colorado Space Coalition

The Colorado Space Coalition is a nonprofit industry association founded in 2015 and headquartered in Colorado Springs that advocates for and promotes Colorado's aerospace and space industry — one of the largest and most concentrated in the United States, with the state ranked among the top two states nationally for space industry employment and investment.

Colorado's space ecosystem includes major defense and commercial primes: Lockheed Martin Space (Littleton) is the state's largest space employer, producing GPS III satellites, SBIRS missile warning satellites, and Orion crew modules. United Launch Alliance (Centennial) manufactures Atlas V and Vulcan Centaur rockets. Northrop Grumman and L3Harris maintain significant Colorado facilities for satellite systems and payloads. Sierra Space is headquartered in Louisville with its Dream Chaser spaceplane development program. Ball Aerospace (Boulder, now BAE Systems) has built instruments for the Hubble Space Telescope, James Webb Space Telescope, and hundreds of government satellite programs.

Colorado also hosts critical US military space infrastructure: US Space Command was re-established at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs, joining Schriever Space Force Base (home of GPS operations and space control missions) and Buckley Space Force Base (missile warning). The Colorado Space Coalition works across these sectors to attract federal contracts, coordinate workforce development with University of Colorado Boulder's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) and Colorado State University, and advocate for state-level aerospace economic policy. The state's space sector supports an estimated $25 billion in annual economic activity.