The Chamber’s Aerospace Committee met on April 11 at Port San Antonio to discuss the maturing commercial space sector in the Alamo City. Committee chair Scott Gray, President of Elevate Systems, welcomed the group and reviewed one of the committee’s focus areas for the year, internships. The committee continues to champion aerospace internship opportunities at all levels in San Antonio. Scott reviewed recent survey results indicating the large number of open positions across the industry and employer job needs before moving to a discussion of internship options.
The committee also heard from Christina Martinez, Executive Director of the Dee Howard Foundation who discussed involvement in the Aerospace Working Group, part of the Alamo STEM Ecosystem initiative. Recently selected as a DoD STEM Defense Stem Education Consortium (DSEC) partner, the Alamo STEM ecosystem organization is working to bring continued education opportunities like summer camps and internships and raise awareness on employment opportunities within DoD.
The Committee then introduced seven speakers to discuss organizational efforts in the commercial space industry. The list of guests included leaders from Port San Antonio, XArc and the Wex Foundation, Boeing, SwRI, Knight Aerospace, and Land Aero. Although the San Antonio aerospace industry retains a large and leading presence in the maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) sector, our region has a diverse group of engineering, design, and research efforts tied to the space industry. This includes both government work with the Air force, Space Force, and NASA and commercial companies such as SpaceX. Committee member Frank Garcia also talked to the group about the San Antonio Space Network and efforts to bridge our growing space community with regional hubs in Houston and Boca Chica.
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