Hosted by Melissa Navia of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” the ISDC Features Over 100 Sessions and Keynotes by Major Aerospace and Newspace Leaders.

The National Space Society’s International Space Development Conference^® (ISDC^®) will be held in Los Angeles, California, next week from May 23-26. The ISDC is the annual keynote event of NSS, bringing together leading executives, managers, engineers, scientists, educators, students, and laypeople from a wide variety of backgrounds to join in working toward the common goal of developing a spacefaring civilization. The conference attracts over 1000 people from dozens of countries and features important thought leaders from NASA, commercial space, media, academia, and other space-related fields.

ISDC 2024 talks will cover the exploration, development, and settlement of the Moon, Mars, and cislunar space; deep space exploration; innovative spaceflight technology; the commercialization of space and space infrastructure; life support systems; collaboration in space; living in space; space solar power; space debris mediation solutions; planetary defense; space law; and both national and international space policy, among others.

Speakers appearing at ISDC 2024 include retired NASA astronauts Susan Kilrain and Jose Hernandez, the inspiration for the Amazon hit film “A Million Miles Away”; “Star Trek” stars William Shatner and Melissa Navia; planetary scientist and Principal Investigator of the New Horizons program Dr. Alan Stern; CEO of VAST Space Max Haot; Chief Engineer Emeritus of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory Rob Manning; CEO of Embedded Ventures Jordan Noone; conference chair and college provost Dr. Anthony Paustian; VP of Marketing for VAST Dennis Stone; noted YouTube creators Isaac Arthur and Brian McManus; planetary geologist Dr. Pascal Lee; NASA planetary defense professional Dr. Kelly Fast; and many others. For a full listing please see the ISDC website at isdc.nss.org.

“The ISDC is the only major space conference that is intended for everyone, from space professionals to students to the lay public. It is the largest and longest running space conference anywhere,” said Aggie Kobrin, NSS Event Manager. “We’re thrilled to be holding the conference in Los Angles this year. It’s wonderful and to have these amazing speakers appearing before an audience ranging from seasoned NASA professionals to hundreds of young people, all of whom are deeply interested in space.”

Image credit: Melissa Navia