“I thought we’d have good, but I wanted kick-ass,” San Antonio Chamber of Commerce CEO Jeff Webster says, explaining the delay of the first Texas Space Summit. “So, we decided to give ourselves more breathing room and extended time.”
San Antonio Express-News file photo
Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones speaks during a November 2025 news conference announcing that San Antonio would host the first Texas Space Summit.
San Antonio Express-News file photo
Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones speaks with Texas Space Commission board member Brad Morrison and Chairman Gwen Griffin before the start of a news conference announcing the first Texas Space Summit.
San Antonio Express-News file photo
Organizers have scrubbed Texas’ first-ever space summit just a few months before it was to occur in San Antonio.
The conference on the state’s booming commercial space business had been set for Sept. 21-23 at the Henry B. González Convention Center, but it was pushed to sometime in 2027.
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Jeff Webster, president and CEO of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, said he made the call earlier this summer. The chamber is hosting the event.
“I thought we’d have good, but I wanted kick-ass,” he said. “So, we decided to give ourselves more breathing room and extended time.”
The Texas Space Summit will happen in San Antonio next year, he said, but no dates have been set.
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“I wanted this to be such an out of the park, great experience, and we had great momentum,” he said. “We had great speakers lined up, but it wasn’t to where I wanted it to be.
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“I think we quasi-rushed it because we really gave ourselves a year to really work up to it.”
Webster said the Texas Space Commission and the space companies were good with the delay.
“SpaceX was in the middle of their IPO and Blue Origin had stuff going on, and NASA had Artemis,” he said. “The industry people and the suppliers— it’s been a crazy year for them — so, I think we actually end up providing plenty of time for them to breathe.”
Planning for the summit began last summer. The space commission committed to holding it in San Antonio after the chamber offered to host the event.
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Space Commission Chair Gwen Griffin, San Antonio Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones and Webster held a news conference at Brooks in November 2025 to announce the summit.
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At the time, the event was expected to attract more than 2,000 attendees with a budget of between $1.1 million and $2.1 million. Now the budget is closer to the lower amount, Webster said.
As for sponsorships and attendee sign-ups, he said, “we were doing OK — I just didn’t think we were going to separate it from good to great, and we want great.”
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Ads for Capital Factory, Swift Aerospace, the Space Force Association and the National Security and Innovation Council still appear on the conference website.
A notice on the website said the extra time will help organizers “build on the strong foundation already in place, deepen industry engagement and deliver an event that matches the scale of the sector it represents.”
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A schedule for the summit themed “Land Here, Go Beyond” lists talks and events with speakers that include space company leaders, Space Force generals, NASA officials, the mayor of Brownsville, Southwest Research Institute scientists and professors from the University of Texas at San Antonio.
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It’s also expected to have “live demonstrations and scale models of launch systems, satellites, robotics and life-support technologies” and exhibits “including lunar bases and Mars simulations.”
The Convention Center said it was notified of the change on July 28 and that it had minimal effect on its business. The chamber has placed an $11,253 deposit on the venue that would be refunded if the event is rebooked.
The state’s space business employs more than 150,000 people and is home to major space organizations, including NASA, SpaceX, Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, Intuitive Machines, Axiom and Lockheed Martin.