Take the stage. Meet your next partner. Win $50K in prizes.
Achieve more in space! Enter your top technology to the Space Innovation Challenge by September 15. Finalists will pitch their solutions to an audience of technology integrators, funders, federal government, and corporate partners who will award $50,000 to five winners. Challenge organizers have specifically allocated one of the five prizes for an HBCU or MSI-based company or technology. If you started your big idea at an HBCU, we want to hear from you!
For the first time, the Space Innovation Challenge will accelerate the commercialization and transition of in-space technologies across themes including:
- Health Tech and Biotech-In-Space, such as:
- Astronaut health monitoring
- Adapting astronaut health tech for terrestrial remote medicine
- Utilizing microgravity for health-related development, including pharmaceuticals or bioprinting
- In-Space Capability Providers: Stations and Facilities
- Privately-owned launch vehicles
- Modular crewed LEO stations
- Robotic test-bed facilities
- In-Space Capability Providers: Advanced Materials and Manufacturing
- Advanced 3D printers for on-orbit operations
- Valorization of existing space debris
- Utilization of Space-Derived Data, including:
- Geolocation
- Tagging, Tracking, & Location (TTL)
- Real-Time/Near Real-Time Large Data Analytics and Virtualization
- Global Integrated Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (GIISR)
- Joint Multi-Domain Battlespace Awareness (SA)
- On-Orbit Operational Data Management, including:
- Capture, Analysis and Security
- Data Fusion and Dissemination
- Electronic and Cyber Warfare
- Command, Control, Communications (C3) and Spectrum Utilization
- Next-Generation Hardware for Space Observation, Monitoring, and Sensing
- Earth Observation sensor platforms
- Sensors for orbital monitoring and management of orbital constellations
- Internal sensors for monitoring satellite health and operations
Prizes & Incentives
TechConnect will invite top finalists to present their technology to a panel of leading experts from industry and government at the Defense TechConnect Innovation Summit (Nov. 28-30, Washington DC), competing for a share of a $50,000 prize pool. TechConnect will name up to five winners at the conference, following the pitch event. Winners will each receive a prize of up to $10,000. Additional incentives include:
- Networking opportunities with space industry primes and venture experts during the conference
- Access to experts in funding opportunities with the co-located SBIR/STTR Innovation Conference
- Invitation to the corporate speed dating event, putting you in front of industry leaders across a wide range of technical domains to establish new connections and opportunities
- Opportunity to collaborate with the TechConnect network of industry-relevant mentors
Location: Gaylord National Convention Center and Hotel, National Harbor, MD
Duration: 5 minutes, followed by 2 minutes of Q&A from the judges