OSC Hosts Inaugural Space Workforce Forum

Yesterday, the Office of Space Commerce did something simple and significant at the same time:

We listened.

Not in a press release kind of way. Not in a “we held a forum and issued a summary” kind of way. We set up the room, invited the people doing the real work, and actually heard them.

The Space Workforce Forum, hosted by our partners at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, was the first major signal capture event in a much longer arc. And what came out of those breakout rooms was not just data. It was direction.

A special acknowledgment is owed to Jackie P. Taylor of Boost Legacy Foundation, who brought the kind of facilitation energy that turns a structured session into a real conversation.

The day was grounded by a walkthrough of the Signal Reference Discussion Paper, presented by Forum Host Theresa Quitto-Dickerson, which framed what the Office of Space Commerce has been hearing across the ecosystem and set the context for everything that followed in the breakout sessions.

What we heard across the panels and breakout cycles will shape the roadmap we build to address the actual friction points in the space workforce ecosystem. OSC extends a special thanks to all panelists who made the conversation possible.

Anchored by our lunch partners, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, the Office of Space Commerce is not here to talk at the industry. We are here to listen, synthesize, and move. The Space Workforce Forum was step one in a deliberate signal capture architecture that does not end when the session closes. 

If you would like a copy of the Signal Reference Discussion Paper, you may reach out to SpaceCommerce@noaa.gov. A copy is also available below for direct download.

Next steps are already in motion. Stay tuned.