Jackson School Professor and outer space expert Saadia Pekkanen, along with Aeronautics and Astronautics Chair Kristi Morgansen, convened top industry, policy and researchers to start the conversation on searching for better solutions in space. The inaugural UW Space Symposium held Dec. 6. featuring retired commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, General Kevin Chilton, was the first major event of UW’s new Space Policy and Research Center (SPARC), and was featured in Geekwire in “Satellite mega constellations stir a debate over avoiding catastrophic orbital crashes.”
Pekkanen has called the Pacific Northwest the “‘Silicon Valley of space.”
According to the SPARC website, Pekkanen says, “Outer space has some important differences with other domains with additional ethical and defense implications that will be critical for humanity to sort out. Today, outer space affairs are democratized and commercialized beyond the established players in the West, raising concerns about how a whole new generation of stakeholders will operate together in the future. We need to make sure the playing field has clear rules that work around our globe.”