You gotta love our sky. Take a minute to look outside right now—beautiful isn’t it? We have thriving industries in Colorado who look at the sky and see their careers—that sky delivers on their company’s vision and mission.
Here’s what’s currently happening with our aerospace and aviation industries:
Flying by Pluto. Our own Ball Aerospace built the “eyes” for the New Horizons mission to Pluto. (By the way, the imaging instrument is named Ralph.) Nine years in the making, New Horizons flew by Pluto on Tuesday and Ralph collected navigational images and thermal maps of the dwarf planet and its moon Charon—allowing us to see Pluto like we never have before.
But Ball isn’t the only Colorado company that played a role in that fly-by. Lockheed Martin built the Atlas V rocket it was launched from, University of Colorado Boulder students, faculty and alums built an instrument that collected and analyzed dust particles and Dr. Alan Stern, the executive director of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, is the principal investigator for this mission.
Our aerospace companies continue to put Colorado on the world map as they lead in space exploration.
Celebrating 20 years. On Friday we know you will be hosting big parties for GPS Day as we mark 20 years of GPS (Global Positioning System). GPS was developed to meet the needs of the U.S. military, but think how much value it adds to our daily lives – there really are no good excuses for being lost anymore thanks to GPS and Siri. In fact, there are now 4 billion GPS-enabled devices worldwide! And GPS is operated by the 2nd Space Operations Squadron at Schriever Air Force Base, right here in Colorado. Plus, Colorado’s own United Launch Alliance (or the company’s heritage launch vehicles) has launched every single GPS satellite into space. And, Colorado companies are working hard on the next generation of this technology—to that I say “beam me up, Scotty.”
Putting Coloradans to Work. The metro area has the highest concentration of private-sector aerospace employment in the country, and we’re growing. Lockheed Martin has opened a radio frequency communications research and development lab here. In the lab engineers will test communications technologies for satellites. There are already some 140 engineers working in the lab.
Learning to fly. If you want to be a pilot, the Denver metro area is the place to learn—or that’s what we’re seeing based on two training facilities deciding to locate here. At the end of June, United announced it would consolidate its global pilot training operations to Stapleton—and we’ll be seeing a lot of pilots: 12,000 fly for United around the world! Plus, just this week we found out that FlightSafety International will bring its flight training and simulation center to the Denver International Business Center just outside the airport. A big win for the cities and counties around the airport.
When it comes to our aerospace and aviation industries, the sky is literally the limit. They’re just one of the key industries in Colorado that keeps our economic engine humming. Now, look at your window again—it really is beautiful, isn’t it?
Kelly Brough is the president and CEO of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.
[Photo by Zach Dischner]