Orbital Progress is an independent nonprofit institute advancing market formation in the space economy. We bring research, business leadership and practical engagement to the work of opening a new frontier of human prosperity.
Space markets depend on decisions made across capital, industry, and policy. Orbital Progress brings leaders from these communities together to spot shared opportunities, test assumptions, and agree on what commercial growth needs. Our flagship is the Orbital Progress Space Economy Leadership Forum. Its first session, on December 7, 2026, in Dallas, brings 30 to 40 leaders together to explore how Texas's financial and space strengths can help build the space economy.
→ Space Economy Leadership ForumOur research looks at how space markets form, where they struggle, and what makes growth last. We study demand, business models, procurement, and institutions to separate technical possibility from commercial opportunity, and we write for decision-makers. All of it is open access, and our work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal and SpaceNews.
We work with founders, investors, public buyers, and regional leaders on the choices that shape emerging markets. This work connects the questions raised in the room with the evidence from our research, and keeps both grounded in real decisions.
Space opens possibilities for settlement, resources, manufacturing, energy and economic activity beyond Earth. Entrepreneurship, private property and individual initiative help turn those possibilities into businesses, livelihoods and new sources of prosperity. Government missions and public investment lay essential foundations at the frontier. Commercially disciplined buyers, adaptable suppliers and institutions that support ownership and long-term investment help those foundations serve a growing economy.
Garretson founded Orbital Progress in 2026 after circulating the foundational market-formation corpus as private research during the preceding two years. An astrophysics PhD from Harvard, he led the space portfolio at the Science and Technology Policy Institute in the 2000s, including leading analytical work on early SpaceX and the COTS program. He subsequently oversaw McKinsey's aerospace and defense knowledge portfolio, including work with the Brookings Institution on the Colorado space cluster. He is also the founder of CounterFlow Solutions.
John Dana Chisholm has four decades of experience as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur, CEO, and investor. He founded and led Decisive Technology (now part of Google) and CustomerSat (now part of FocusVision), and today heads John Chisholm Ventures, a San Francisco advisory and investment firm. He has served on the MIT Corporation and is a trustee of the Santa Fe Institute, the Foundation for Economic Education, and The Future of Free Speech. He is the author of Unleash Your Inner Company and holds degrees from MIT and Harvard Business School.
CEO and President of the Aldrin Family Foundation and Executive Director of Space Programs at Embry-Riddle Worldwide. He previously held executive roles at Boeing, United Launch Alliance, and Moon Express, and founded the ISU Center for Space Entrepreneurship at Florida Tech. His career spans commercial space, policy research, entrepreneurship education, and public-interest space leadership.
Joshua Smith, a Partner at Bell Nunnally & Martin LLP in Dallas, Texas, and an LL.M. candidate in Air & Space Law at Ole Miss, has developed a strong foundation in the institutional infrastructure of the commercial space economy and provides practical advice on the frameworks governing future outer space disputes.
Executive Vice President of Beyond Earth Institute and President of the Washington Space Business Roundtable, Stadd has dedicated his career to addressing the challenges of enabling a market-driven, competitive commercial space sector.
Bart Slowik, CISSP, is Founder and CEO of SylLab Systems, Inc., a Dallas company working where quantum resiliency, artificial intelligence and digital twins meet in space and defense systems. Since founding SylLab in 2019, he has focused on letting operators test spacecraft, autonomy and AI against realistic threats before flight, and on securing systems already in the field. He mentors cybersecurity founders through the Stars Mentor Network of MACH37, the global cybersecurity accelerator.
Connor Brankin is a sales engineer at Space Electronics, a Texas-based manufacturers' rep firm with roots dating back to the Apollo era. Since 2015, he has supported harsh environment engineering efforts in the Military/Aerospace, Energy, Industrial and Medical sectors. Connor co-founded a national event production company while attending TCU. An entrepreneur, Eagle Scout, and longtime Big Brothers Big Sisters mentor, he is passionate about supporting STEM initiatives and strengthening the talent pipeline in DFW. He is committed to building connections between the business community and the technologies, talent and innovators driving the growth of the Space economy.
All Orbital Progress research is open, with no subscription walls. Founding Circle members receive briefings before publication, not exclusive findings. The work is built to be cited, applied, and argued with.
Independence is the asset. When the evidence conflicts with the commercial interest of a supporter, the evidence wins. That is the principle Orbital Progress is built around.
Join the conversation at the Space Economy Leadership Forum. Read the research. Help build the institute through the Founding Circle. Or write to us directly.