Space in the Bay Area
Overview
Silicon Valley and the Bay Area have long been identified with technological innovation, the creation of new industries, and the disruption of old ones. This applies to space. In the popular mind, the Bay Area—which includes Silicon Valley—is identified with industries such as computer hardware, software, semiconductors, or social media, while the space industry is identified with Southern California, Florida, or Texas. The Bay Area, however, has a deep history in the space sector and is playing a revolutionary role there as well.
The Bay Area plays a distinctive role due less to its size than to its orientation. The region is home to leading university research programs in astronomy and astrophysics and is more broadly the US epicenter for technology innovation and its leading center for startups. From this base, the Bay Area plays a unique role in advancing the national space enterprise through its entrepreneurial capacity and computational, software, and IT assets. Over time, it has evolved from being a leading base for space research to serving today as the intellectual heart of the space industry, focusing less on fabrication than on R&D. This enables the region to serve as an incubator for new technologies and for emerging space-related companies.