UND Space Operations Summit 2026

The 2026 summit takes place at the University of North Dakota Memorial Union in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

The organizer identifies industry, academia, and government as audience groups.

It suits people in space operations who value a campus-based regional gathering over a national show: the audience spans industry, academia and government, and the speakers include the University of North Dakota president Andrew Armacost and Senator Kevin Cramer, which points to a strong policy and local-ecosystem angle. Students, researchers and early-career staff can meet employers and university programs here, and the sponsor list, with Auriga Space, Voyager, Lunaris Digital and RIAS alongside several UND units, shows which companies are engaged in the region. Senior program managers or vendors seeking large buyer pools or deep classified-level technical exchange will probably get less from a university-hosted summit in Grand Forks than from a national defense or space trade show.

Attendees at space and defense summits usually wear business casual, with some suits among government and industry guests, and Grand Forks in early November is cold, so a warm coat is sensible.