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eSpace Delivers Stellar ROI in Aerospace

Dépèche transmise le 14 juin 2011 par Business Wire

eSpace Delivers Stellar ROI in Aerospace

BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--eSpace: The Center for Space Entrepreneurship, a non-profit 501(c)(3) business incubator and workforce development organization for aerospace start-up companies, today announced the six-month financial impact of its Straight to Space (S2S) and eSpace Incubator programs. The complete economic impact report is available for download here: http://bit.ly/m0n8iR.

“eSpace is fostering the evolution of a thriving entrepreneurial aerospace industry in Colorado”

Since October of 2010, a $75,500 investment in training support for new aerospace employees has resulted in $1.4 million worth of salaried jobs in the Colorado economy. During this same period, every $1 spent on eSpace Incubator direct costs has resulted in $4.62 in revenue to the companies in the Incubator—an ROI of 362% in just six months.

The eSpace Straight to Space program develops opportunities for individuals interested in and capable of contributing to the aerospace industry, but who are not currently working in aerospace. The eSpace Incubator program offers space entrepreneurs a unique environment that maximizes the probability of their business success. Incubator participants have access to physical space; financial grants; executive-level entrepreneurs as mentors; and aerospace infrastructure, manufacturing facilities, and established high-level agency and industrial relationships.

Since the inception of eSpace: The Center for Space Entrepreneurship:

• The Straight to Space workforce replacement initiative has helped more than 60 people join the ranks of aerospace workers.
• S2S graduates now work in more than 25 entrepreneurial space companies in the Rocky Mountain region.
• More than 70 companies have applied to participate in the eSpace Incubator program; 9 have been chosen to participate.
• eSpace Incubator participants have won eight Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants, the total value of which amounts to nearly $1.4 million.

In addition to the Straight to Space and Incubator programs, eSpace runs a Venture Design program in conjunction with the University of Colorado Aerospace Engineering Sciences department. The Venture Design program sponsors student and faculty research leading to potential entrepreneurial opportunities. Already this program has shown results: TIGON EnerTec, developers of an extraordinary hybrid propulsion technology that is light enough to be viable for aerospace applications and inexpensive enough to be applied to small engines, evolved with support from the Venture Design program—and is now involved in the eSpace Incubator. Additionally, the eSpace Venture Design program is providing support for two proposed Centers of Excellence at CU.

“eSpace is fostering the evolution of a thriving entrepreneurial aerospace industry in Colorado,” says Mark Sirangelo, chairman of the eSpace board of directors and head of Sierra Nevada Space Systems. “We believe that this area is becoming to aerospace what the Silicon Valley has become to computing technology, with dozens of new entrepreneurial aerospace companies, astonishing commercialization efforts involving student and faculty research, and hundreds, even thousands, of new aerospace jobs—direct and related—being created. And this is just the start. In the future, the eSpace model is one that can be expanded and replicated nationally.”

For more information on eSpace, please visit www.espacecenter.org or contact Diane Dimeff at (303) 630-1611 ([email protected]) or Rick Ward at (303) 630-1612 ([email protected]). For additional perspectives, please follow eSpace Center on Twitter at @eSpaceCenter and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/eSpaceCenter.

Resources

eSpace Center website: www.espacecenter.org

eSpace Center press releases: http://www.espacecenter.org/news.php

eSpace Center slide show: http://slidesha.re/hJvxlx

About eSpace: The Center for Space Entrepreneurship

eSpace: The Center for Space Entrepreneurship is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization formed from a partnership of the University of Colorado, a national leader in aerospace engineering, and Sierra Nevada Corporation’s Space Systems Group. Its mission is to support the creation and development of an important national resource—entrepreneurial space companies; to commercialize the technologies that they create; and to develop a diversified 21st century workforce to catalyze their growth. The Center is based in Boulder, Colorado. For more information on eSpace, please visit http://espacecenter.org.

All brand names and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Tags: eSpace, aerospace, space, space commercialization, space travel, space transportation, incubator, entrepreneur, inventor, workforce development, SBIR, NASA, grants, Venture Design, Straight to Space, Colorado, Rocky Mountain region