Las Vegas — Each year for the last five years, ASCEND has featured a group of emerging space visionaries from around the world who offer solutions to the most pressing space sustainability challenges.
Known as “ASCENDANTS” (previously the Diverse Dozen), the group, comprised of trailblazers from NGOs, government, and industry from nine countries, address compelling issues ranging from managing space debris to ensuring every country has a seat at the space table, among other topics.
Designed in the style of a Ted Talk, the in-person presentations are preceded by each ASCENDANT publishing an OpEd on ascend.events that highlights their best ideas for moving the needle forward as space stewards.
“The ASCENDANTS recognize being in the right relationship with the environment. They realize it’s a shared environment and that we’re inextricably linked to it,” said the program’s creator, Moriba Jah, an astrodynamics expert and chief scientist and co-founder of Privateer.
In the past five years, more than 60 people have participated in this unique cohort. This year’s group includes Eden Abeselom Habteslasie, assistant researcher in the Space Engineering Research and Development Directorate for the Ethiopian Space Science and Technology Institute.
Through her job, Habteslasie has been deeply involved in solving the technical challenges of space engineering system design, trajectory calculations, and hardware building. Her mission — to ensure Ethiopia goes to space.
But her hopes are in peril given today’s crowded and unregulated orbital environment. For her, being a space engineer is not only about creating machines to launch, but it also is about creating them responsibly.
“The problem is not only ‘can we reach orbit?’ but also ‘how can we save orbit for future generations?’” she said. Her aspiration is to be “a change-making space engineer.”
As someone from an emerging nation, who dreams of building native satellites and rockets with local engineers, Habteslasie became increasingly worried about the space accessibility issue.
The Imperative of Partnering Globally
“One of the reasons for this is the space debris, which has not only deeply challenged the sustainability of the space environment in the long run, but also makes it difficult for new entrants such as my country to enter the space industry.”
She believes global partnership is “essential, not optional.”
“It is absolutely necessary to keep space sustainable and open to all. Emerging nations like Ethiopia are willing to do their part, but the distribution of access must be fair,” she added, noting that to collectively protect the orbital environment, “we should give all nations real opportunities and make them co-players in the joint action to save space for future generations.”
She now embraces a new vision: to be a protector of space as a basic task of a 21st-century space engineer. “When a nation like Ethiopia is in the stage of development, the first steps we take in space have to be our most cautious ones. I have changed my goal now. I don’t want simply to be an engineer but one who takes care of the environment and introduces new ecofriendly methods right from the beginning,” she explained.
Jah believes the ASCENDANTS emphasize what’s possible if the space environment is one where there is connection and commitment to co-exist, versus the dominant perspective in the West that he described as colonial, where space is a resource to extract and to exploit.
Space for All
“We’re providing a platform for voices that are almost always unheard and people who are almost always unseen,” he added. Appropriately, the mantra of the program is Space for All.
“Space for All is more than just a tagline; it is everyone’s goal,” says Indonesian Farah Diya Yasmine, a member of the 2025 cohort. “Growing up with numerous difficult experiences, from limited access to gaps in opportunities, has motivated me to bring ‘space for all’ into my lovely Madurese, the Indigenous people from Madura Island,” she said.
Yasmine’s priority is to look at how remote sensing could help monitor water bodies and detect clean water for her island community.
“Here, I feel lucky yet responsible as a young leader who experiences education, learning how space and law could facilitate solving our local challenges. With love for my people, I have been sharing and showing space technology potential to help us solve our issues from here [Earth] and above [outer space], especially in Earth observation for water-body monitoring and communication satellites for learning access.”
She has familiarized the Madurese with space utilization and its law through her platform, Farah Law School, by delivering lectures and exposing global research opportunities with local students.
Making the Case for Space Sustainability as a Legal Principle
During her talk, she proposed implementing long-term sustainability as a legal principle. She explained that it’s not enough to adopt one or more values from global yet diverse communities. “We need more…to achieve mutual understanding and relatability in the implementation for all.”
“I hope to continue my journey with fellow ASCENDANTS and the ASCEND audience through collaborative projects based on our proposals, unlocking more space for all opportunities, wider and longer.”
Another ASCENDANT, Antonio Fowl Stark (KangSan Kim), calls South Korea home, but has lived and worked in more than 10 countries.
“As someone who has worked at two lunar companies, I’ve often wrestled with how space exploration aligns with my own values. It’s easy to say we’re ‘advancing science and humanity,’ but that sometimes felt like a convenient cover for funneling public resources into elite hands, hoping for trickle-down benefits that never quite arrive,” said the Global Alliance Lead at Japan’s ispace, inc. Writing his Op-Ed and going through the ASCENDANTS process gave him a new lens.
The Moon’s Deep Significance
“I realized how spiritually and culturally significant the moon already is for billions, through religion, agriculture, and historic significance. I began to see lunar exploration not just as a technical project, but as a human story that will echo across generations,” Stark added. “That shift helped me reconnect with a deeper purpose: space stewardship is about more than just preventing debris or following ethics protocols. It’s about ensuring the values we carry into the stars are ones we’d be proud to see reflected back on Earth.”
The South Korean space professional has seen how emerging nations and unconventional perspectives often lead to the most meaningful innovation. Hoping to follow in the footsteps of other ASCENDANTS, Stark intends to use this opportunity to “bridge voices across borders and backgrounds, and invite deeper, more inclusive collaboration across the space sector.”
He considers the moon one of the most consequential stages for global visibility, influence, and technological expression.
“Participation in lunar development is no longer optional—even silence is a statement. Whether you’re a nation, a company, or an individual, opting out doesn’t mean being neutral; it means letting someone else decide the rules,” he explained .
The moon is fast becoming the next arena for geopolitical tension and technological supremacy, the ASCENDANT remarked, resulting in questions of ownership and access. He believes the moon the clearest test case for commercial integration and a more equitable form of international collaboration.
“That’s especially true among countries outside the traditional space powers, he said, adding, “The big idea I want to leave behind is this: everyone in this room has a stake in how we build that future. Because if we don’t shape it together, we may find ourselves excluded from a space that’s more alienating, more privatized, and more detached from the shared values we thought it would reflect.”
The Final Cohort
This year’s program is its last under AIAA’s coordination. For Jah, watching the 2025 ASCENDANTS speak on the ASCEND stage was a bittersweet moment. He said he’s most proud of them for embracing their role as stewards — to find solutions to problems that “are generative, restorative and socially just.”
“What they share is a fire and a passion to be agents of change. That opportunity is not going to just come; they create it,” he said, noting that the program has given them confidence to believe in themselves to become influencers.
Not surprisingly, many ASCENDANT alumni have gone on to complete advanced degrees and are active with the United Nations and international space conferences; several belong to the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC). The October-December issue of Aerospace America will catch up with several ASCENDANT alumni to see where they are today.
