Where Aerospace Meets Advancement

Colorado’s aerospace ecosystem is the global leader and ranks #1 per capita in aerospace employment with an extensive network of highly innovative and collaborative aerospace businesses. Aerospace employment increased 26.3% over the past five years. There are over 2,000 aerospace businesses employing over 55,000 employees directly and another 184,000 indirectly.

Colorado aerospace businesses, national security units, universities and federal labs are at the center of the nation’s space industry and national security space missions. The aerospace and defense industry is an economic engine for the State, attracting federal contracts at a record pace this past year, winning over $23 billion in federal contracts, another $12.5 billion economic impact from our military bases and $3.4 billion to our federal labs. Thanks to Colorado’s incredible quality of life, world-class talent pool, ability to attract and retain talent, and full-spectrum aerospace ecosystem, aerospace and defense companies are increasingly calling Colorado home.

Furthermore, the space industry is intertwined with quantum computing, quantum sensing, artificial intelligence, information technology, cyber security and advanced manufacturing. Colorado’s attributes and its powerful aerospace ecosystem are attracting companies and national security work in these advanced industries as well.

Colorado’s aerospace industry is supporting NASA’s Artemis program, which will return Americans, including the first woman and person of color, to the moon and then beyond. Approximately 200 Colorado companies are taking part in the Artemis program. The most visible single contribution is Colorado’s Lockheed Martin Space Systems’ Orion spacecraft.

The James Webb telescope, the world’s most advanced space research facility, sent vividly detailed photographs looking back in time some 13 billion years and further out into the universe than thought possible only a few years ago. Colorado’s Ball Aerospace (now BAE Space and Mission Systems) was the prime contractor on the telescope’s optics.

Colorado’s United Launch Alliance recently launched its first Vulcan rocket, its newest rocket which will replace both the Delta and Atlas systems (left over from its parents, Boeing and LM respectively). Additionally, ULA launched Starliner to the International Space Station giving America its sixth historic and second current manned spacecraft capability. It was ULA’s 161st successful launch out of 161 attempts and its first manned mission. In a few years, there will be four manned spacecraft with two of the four made in Colorado (LM’s Orion and Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser).

Colorado hosts 50% of our nation’s Space Force providing some of our nation’s most critical space capabilities. The capabilities include precision navigation and timing signals (Global Positioning System, GPS), ballistic missile threat detection and warning, space domain awareness, and communications systems. These capabilities are enabled by a significant defense space infrastructure and a world-class innovative and thriving aerospace business ecosystem.

Colorado is the home for United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM), North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the United States Space Command (USSPACECOM), Space Force Operations Command (SpOC), three out of six U.S. Space Force bases and the United States Air Force Academy.

Recently, Colorado was named the permanent home of U.S. Space Command. This allowed USSPACECOM to capitalize on the state’s vibrant aerospace ecosystem and achieve Full Operational Capability (FOC).

The Space Force’s Space Domain Awareness Lab is also located in Colorado. This lab brings together companies to collectively solve the SDA effort, a complex challenge that no one company or technology can solve. The lab is growing fast with over 40 companies and institutions currently helping.

In FY23-24, OEDIT awarded 10 Advanced Industry Grants and four STEP grants to aerospace/defense companies and contracted Job Growth Incentive Tax Credits which could create 3,922 new jobs at aerospace/defense companies. Additionally, the Department of Defense added 1,700 permanent positions to the State.