Space is no longer a benign operating environment. It is a contested warfighting domain, where adversaries are rapidly expanding counter-space capabilities and testing U.S. resilience on orbit and across the industrial base. Against this backdrop, ASCEND 2026 will feature its most robust national security programming to date – a keynote address from the U.S. Space Force, a full-day Space Transformation Track hosted by The Aerospace Corporation, plus a Classified Day – showing how the United States can outpace adversaries, harden critical space infrastructure, and transform its space industrial base.
National Security Sessions: From Orbit to Infrastructure
ASCEND’s national security track will feature a broad portfolio of unclassified sessions covering the future of national security space, advances in space domain awareness, vLEO, technological sovereignty in space, cislunar infrastructure, cyber-resilient systems engineering, and Golden Dome and Space-Based Interceptor missile defense, among other topics.
Together, the Space Transformation Track and broader ASCEND national security program, plus Classified Day aim to move the community from awareness to action – driving faster collaboration, more resilient architectures, and a holistic approach to defending the space domain.
Brig. Gen. Nick Hague, Assistant Deputy Chief of Space Operations for Operations, U.S. Space Force, will deliver the opening plenary session keynote on Wednesday, 20 May, with Brig. Gen. Damon Feltman (Ret.), CEO, Space Force Association, providing introductory remarks.
Classified Day: Deep Dive Inside the SCIF
A central pillar of this year’s national security focus is Classified Day, to be held 18 May at The Aerospace Corporation’s classified SCIF in Chantilly, Virginia. Attendance requires an appropriate clearance level: Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI), Talent Keyhole (TK), or NF–NOFORN (No Foreign Nationals).
Classified Day will bring together Pentagon and intelligence community leaders, top investors, primes, neoprimes, and high‑growth start-ups. Chris Scolese, director of the National Reconnaissance Office, will participate in an extended fireside chat as he prepares to step down after nearly seven years leading the NRO.
“ASCEND’s first Classified Day reflects the growing need for deeper, more candid technical collaboration across a more integrated and threatened national security space enterprise,” said Eric Hall, corporate chief engineer at The Aerospace Corporation. “This setting allows us to move beyond high-level dialogue and work across government and industry to integrate capabilities, strengthen the space industrial base, and accelerate solutions that help secure the nation and shape the future of space.”
Staying Ahead in a Contested Space Domain
The organizing theme for this year’s national security content in simple terms is: “a need for speed,” according to Chelsey Wiley, AIAA’s content manager for R&D and national security. That urgency, she explained, is rooted in intensifying strategic competition.
“These ‘go‑faster’ directives are about catching up to competitors, with China as a central focus,” Wiley noted. “They’re pushing the Pentagon to move faster and to better align government needs with rapid commercial solutions – bridging the commercial/government divide.”
Across both classified and unclassified sessions, ASCEND will probe how to accelerate the national security space industrial base, adopt AI/ML and digital engineering at scale, and strengthen supply chains and mission resilience from vLEO to cislunar space.
Space Transformation Track and Unclassified Sandbox
This year, The Aerospace Corporation is hosting the Space Transformation Track on Thursday, 21 May, which will include a Strategic Innovation Sandbox Interactive Roundtable Experience. These roundtable discussions, aimed at priming America’s space industry to solve challenges faster, will explore how shared innovation ecosystems and collaboration with investors can address U.S. production and supply chain issues, leverage AI and machine learning for space, and deliver U.S. leadership on the moon.
“The Innovation Sandbox will leverage systematic innovation and foresight methodologies to catalyze the exceptional talent across the community,” said Kara Cunzeman, principal director of The Aerospace Corporation’s eLab. “We aim to generate a wide range of ideas, some of which may seed amazing transformations within the space enterprise. Together, we’ll reimagine how the space enterprise can accelerate development, cultivate robust innovation ecosystems, and strategically align investments in response to national imperatives.”
Other Space Transformation track panels will address:
- Integrating civil, national security, and commercial systems into hybrid architectures that can adapt to fast-moving markets and emerging threats
- The evolution of launch amid the constant demand for ensured access to space
- Industry’s importance in the next era of NASA space science and exploration.
Confirmed Space Transformation speakers include:
- Alyssa Goessler, Vice President, AE Industrial Partners
- Clay Mowry, CEO, AIAA
- Laura Maginnis, Vice President, New Glenn Mission Management, Blue Origin
- David Cavossa, President, Commercial Space Federation
- Dave Gauthier, Chief Strategy Officer, GXO Inc.
- Brad Bailey, Assistant Deputy Associate Administrator for Exploration, NASA
- Al Tadros, Chief Technology Officer, Redwire
- Andy Bunker, Vice President, Government Operations & Business Strategy, Rocket Lab
- Adrian Thompson, Chief AI & Innovation Officer, Slingshot Aerospace
- Devon Papandrew, Vice President, Business Development, Stoke Space
- Clint Hunt, Director, Intelligence and Defense Programs, ULA
- Gillian Bussey, Deputy Chief Science Officer, U.S. Space Force
- Caryn Schenewerk, Chief Policy Officer, Vast
- Paul Tilghman, Chief Technology Officer, Voyager Technologies
Register for ASCEND 2026.
