SAN ANTONIO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 24, 2025--
The Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce and community leaders announced San Antonio as the host city for the 2026 Texas Space Summit, Sept. 21-23, 2026. Themed "Land Here, Go Beyond," the summit will highlight efforts to expand Texas' role in the commercial space economy and showcase how industry partners are strengthening the supply chain powering the nation's future in space.
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Buyers, funders, policymakers and researchers from the U.S. Department of Defense, NASA and leading Texas-based space contractors, innovators and investors will explore live demonstrations and scale models of launch systems, satellites, robotics and life-support technologies. Immersive exhibits will bring space missions to life, including lunar bases and Mars simulations.
"The San Antonio region has a long history with aerospace, and we are excited to host the 2026 Texas Space Summit," said Jeff Webster, president and CEO of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce. "This gathering strengthens Texas' role in the commercial space economy and furthers the development of a supply chain that creates high-quality jobs and investments across our state."
As NASA plans to deorbit the International Space Station in 2030 and shift to commercially operated stations, the agency has invested more than $400 million and released a draft Phase 2 partnership announcement in September to advance commercial space development. The transition is fueling investments and opportunities across Texas and the United States.
“Texas has always been a frontier state—bold, visionary, and unafraid to reach for the stars,” said Adam Hamilton, CEO of Southwest Research Institute. “We’re proud to carry that spirit forward, leading groundbreaking space missions and developing technologies that expand humanity’s reach beyond Earth. The Texas Space Summit is a celebration of our state’s growing role as a global hub for space innovation, and we’re honored to help shape that future.”
The state is already home to major space organizations, including Blue Origin, SpaceX, NASA and Firefly Aerospace, employing more than 150,000 Texans.
"The space industry is shifting to a commercially-led-global ecosystem that is projected to reach roughly $1.8 trillion by 2035," said Gwen Griffin, chair of the Texas Space Commission. “We are blessed to have Governor Abbott’s full support to deliver the emergent and long-term needs of our nation for the civil, commercial and national security space sectors. On behalf of the Texas Space Commission, l would like to thank the team at the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce for your visionary leadership in creating the Texas Space Summit."
The Texas Space Commission has awarded more than $126 million to organizations advancing space operations and spaceflight in the state. The funding comes from the Space Exploration and Aeronautics Research fund, which the Texas Legislature appropriated $150 million to in 2023.
About the 2026 Texas Space Summit
The 2026 Texas Space Summit, taking place Sept. 21–23 in San Antonio, Texas, will bring together leaders from government, defense, academia, and industry to explore the future of space innovation and commercialization in Texas. The summit will feature keynote sessions, exhibitions and networking opportunities highlighting Texas’ leadership in the space sector. Visit www.texasspacesummit.com for details.
Texas leaders announce San Antonio as the host city for the 2026 Texas Space Summit on Nov. 18, 2025.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin on Wednesday rescinded a rule that DHS expenditures over $100,000 be personally approved by his office, ending a widely criticized policy implemented by his predecessor Kristi Noem that critics said put a particular burden on the Federal Emergency Management Agency ’s work aiding disaster response and recovery.
The decision marks the first major action by the new Homeland Security leader, sworn in last week, to change a policy implemented by Noem, whom President Donald Trump fired in March.
Mullin's move is expected to ease a spending bottleneck that lawmakers and states said delayed disaster response and recovery funds, though those impacts are unlikely to be widely felt until after the end of the DHS shutdown, now in its 46th day.
A DHS spokesperson confirmed that Mullin rescinded the rule Wednesday, telling The Associated Press the secretary “re-evaluated the contract processes to make sure DHS is serving the American taxpayer efficiently.” CBS News first reported Mullin's decision.
The spokesperson said Mullin’s action will streamline the contracting process and allocate aid more efficiently.
The International Association of Emergency Managers praised Mullin’s decision. “We appreciate Secretary Mullin’s common-sense approach to this matter, and we look forward to working with him,” said Josh Morton, president of IAEM-USA.
Noem issued a directive last June requiring that she personally approve any Department of Homeland Security expenditure over $100,000. Critics said the rule undermined FEMA in particular, an agency that routinely issues contracts and reimbursements well over that amount in its work preparing for and responding to natural and manmade disasters across the U.S.
The policy created “an untenable situation for emergency managers,” Morton said, and a bottleneck that also hindered mitigation and preparedness programs, “putting Americans at increased risk from disasters.”
A recently released report by Democratic members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee found the approval rule had delayed at least 1,000 FEMA contracts, grants or disaster reimbursements by September.
The policy came under scrutiny after news reports linked it to unstaffed call centers and delays deploying FEMA Urban Search and Rescue teams to Texas during deadly floods last July, and brought sharp rebuke from some state officials and lawmakers, especially Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, whose state is still recovering from devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene in 2024.
“You’ve failed at FEMA,” Tillis told Noem at a Senate hearing the day before she was fired.
About $2.2 billion in recovery and mitigation dollars were in the DHS approval queue Wednesday, according to FEMA data seen by the AP.
“It’s got a great mission, and I think people at FEMA want to do their job,” Mullin told lawmakers at his March confirmation hearing, sparking cautious hope that he would ease the tumult experienced at the agency under Noem.
Mullin said he would keep the agency ”adequately staffed” after it lost over 2,400 employees last year, and said he was already considering nominees for a permanent FEMA administrator, which the agency still lacks.
Trump has repeatedly floated the idea of eliminating FEMA, saying as recently as Tuesday that the agency is “very expensive and it really doesn’t get the job done.”
Michael Coen, FEMA chief of staff during the Obama and Biden administrations, said, “Hopefully this a step toward transparency and stability between FEMA and states."
DHS is reviewing other policies across the agency, pausing the purchase of new warehouses for immigration detention this week as it reviews contracts signed under Noem.
Lifting the spending approval rule will not necessarily mean a rapid flow of FEMA reimbursements to states, tribes and territories, as the agency is still impacted by the DHS fund impasse, now the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
While FEMA disaster response and recovery activities are paid out of a non-lapsing Disaster Relief Fund, that money is running low, a FEMA official warned lawmakers in a House hearing last week, with about $3.6 billion remaining. The DHS appropriations bill would add just over $26 billion to the fund.
Republican lawmakers on Wednesday signaled an agreement to end the shutdown could be reached in the coming days.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, March 24, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
