ORLANDO, FL - September 28th, 2026 - Space, once the exclusive domain of rocket scientists and people with very specific childhood dreams, is now apparently just another business tool. Economist Enterprise's 4th annual Space Economy Summit is returning to Orlando on October 28 - 29, 2026, at the University of Central Florida, bringing together senior leaders from government, space, investment, and a dizzying array of industries including telecommunications, agriculture, healthcare, mining, retail, finance, and manufacturing.

The summit's premise is simple: satellite intelligence, resilient connectivity, and other space-enabled technologies are creating new opportunities for growth, resilience, and security on Earth. Which is a fancy way of saying that the thing you use to check traffic now also helps grow your tomatoes and monitor your supply chain.

The speaker line-up reads like a who's who of people who realized space is a growth market. Taylor Jordan, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Environmental Observation and Prediction at NOAA and Director of the Office of Space Commerce, will be there. So will Gillian Bussey, Deputy Chief Science Officer at the US Space Force; Martine Rothblatt, Founder, Chairperson and Chief Executive of United Therapeutics; Srini Kalapala, Senior Vice-President and Chief Network Officer, Wireless, at Verizon; Feroz Sheikh, Group Chief Information and Digital Officer at Syngenta; and Jayesh Bhayani, Executive Vice-President and Senior Director of Technology at Tesco.

Because nothing says "space economy" like a representative from Tesco.

The programme also features leaders from the Federal Communications Commission, United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, NASA, the International Space Station National Laboratory, Citi, BNY Mellon, Rio Tinto, Ford Motor Company, and other organisations across the space and commercial ecosystem. Together, they will explore how space-enabled technologies can address challenges on Earth, from resilient communications and climate intelligence to supply-chain visibility, agricultural productivity, infrastructure monitoring, and new approaches to healthcare and manufacturing.

As space technology becomes increasingly accessible, the summit will focus on the practical questions that determine whether innovation translates into commercial value. Discussions will examine customer demand, integration with legacy systems, procurement pathways, resilient supply chains, and business models capable of delivering value beyond pilot projects. In other words, the stuff that actually matters after the press release.

The programme will also explore the next phase of the space economy, including direct-to-device connectivity, positioning, navigation and timing resilience, defence demand, commercial space stations, orbital computing, microgravity manufacturing, and renewed interest in lunar exploration. Because why not throw in the moon?

Of course, the growing importance of space-enabled technology is accompanied by questions about regulation, geopolitical competition, orbital congestion, defence dependency, sustainability, and commercial viability. The summit will bring together policymakers, investors, space companies, and end users to examine how governments and businesses can develop resilient, trusted, and commercially sustainable space capabilities.

Alongside the main programme, the Space Economy Leaders Club will provide an invitation-only forum for 50 senior decision-makers with the influence, capital, and operational responsibility to shape the future of the global space economy. The club will bring together chief executives, agency leaders, investors, policymakers, commercial space pioneers, and strategic end users of space-enabled technologies for candid discussion and peer exchange. Think of it as a VIP lounge, but with more acronyms.

Hosted at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, the summit is positioned within one of the United States' most important commercial space corridors, connecting academic research, industry innovation, and the wider Florida space economy. The Space Economy Summit will take place on October 28 - 29, 2026.

For more information and to register: https://econint.co/SpaceNews