Space Force opens Pittsburgh hub to boost regional space and tech industries
Nearly four decades after the collapse of the steel industry, the Pittsburgh region has emerged as a growing technology hub in the fields of robotics and life sciences.
Those industries are likely to see a boost from the newly created Keystone Space Innovation Center on Pittsburgh’s North Side. The facility will help funnel a portion of roughly $1 billion in available U.S. military funding to regional companies working in space fields.
U.S. Space Force Gen. David Thompson was in Pittsburgh on Friday to announce the creation of the facility at Nova Place. It will act as a hub for businesses and technology companies in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia to collaborate with the Space Force, Air Force and other space-industry companies such as Pittsburgh’s Astrobotic.
Space Force was established in 2019 as a branch of the Air Force.
Thompson, a native of Ambridge in Beaver County, said he is amazed at how the Pittsburgh region has rebounded from the steel industry collapse he witnessed during his youth. He said the new hub can help continue a tradition of innovation that the region has embraced since the 1980s.
“This center will be vital and important for both Space Force and the Air Force,” said Thompson, who serves as vice chief of space operations for Space Force. “I am incredibly proud of this town and what it has done to become a world innovation center.”
There are 317 technology companies in the tri-state area surrounding Pittsburgh that could benefit from the hub, according to the Keystone Space Collaborative. That rivals the technology presence in states such as Florida, Texas and Virginia, the collaborative said.
The current global space economy is valued at more than $360 billion, and experts expect that to grow to over $1 trillion between 2030 and 2040, said Justine Kasznica, who chairs the Keystone Space Collaborative board.
She said the hub inside Nova Place will act as a temporary collaborative space. The goal is to later move to a permanent location with Astrobotic, a North Side robotics company that is sending a lander to the moon next year.
Phil Hahn, deputy director of the Air Force investment arm AFWERX, said the Air Force has a $1 billion annual budget to invest in technology companies across the country. The Pittsburgh hub should help regional companies gain access to some of those funds.
Hahn, a native of Ford City in Armstrong County, said any company with applicable technology ideas can come to the hub and pitch them to the Air Force.
“A major part of this is making ourselves more accessible (and) to have open dialogue and public store fronts like the one we are opening up today,” he said.