Casey DeRaad sits at her desk. Behind her are pictures of her family and a company plaque that reads "NewSpace New Mexico," and in front of her is her laptop with Zoom loaded up.
It's time for DeRaad's "Third Thursday Tech Talk," where NewSpace connects with representatives from other aerospace companies to share insights and new developments in the burgeoning industry.
This is the idea behind NewSpace New Mexico: to connect New Mexico aerospace companies with one another in order to facilitate mutually beneficial relationships.
"There was a lot happening here in New Mexico as far as the space companies and organizations," DeRaad said. "But there wasn't a concerted effort to pull them all together and help them find companies that had the capabilities to help them out. And that's where we got started."
For New Mexico overall, jobs centered around the aerospace industry are a huge driver in tech and the economy. Investment bank Morgan Stanley predicts that the space economy will be worth over $1 trillion dollars by 2040, and with 107 companies in the field located in New Mexico, tech job availability is growing.
The personal finance technology company SmartAsset also published its yearly "Best Cities for Women in Tech" list on Feb. 18, and for the sixth year in a row Albuquerque finished in the top 15 in the country.
DeRaad's humble beginnings started when she completed her undergraduate degree at the University of New Mexico and a fateful job offer came her way.
"At the time of my undergrad, I was an intern with what is now the Air Force Research Lab, and when I graduated they wanted me to come work with them," said DeRaad, who holds a bachelor's and master's in electrical engineering. "So I started off working on electrical systems of satellites."
From there, DeRaad's love of space really took off.
"I had an internship with NASA not too long after that and got to work on the tiles on the space shuttle doing materials testing," DeRaad said. "I've just always loved space."
In the latter part of her Air Force career, DeRaad focused her work on trying to help the up-and-comers in the industry.
"Near the end of my career with the Air Force Research Lab, I moved more into management (and) led the partnerships organization called 'The Tech Engagement Office' involving tech outreaches," DeRaad said. "And we did partnerships with universities, industry and academia to try to bring more minorities and women into the engineering field."
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Now her focus is here in New Mexico with NewSpace, trying to help make connections between companies in the industry.
"Right now, we're in the process of finding out what the strengths and weaknesses of the space industry here in New Mexico are," DeRaad said.
From there, DeRaad said they aim to help bolster the more robust companies and attract new ones to fill in the gaps.
"We just have to keep living up to our motto of growing the space industry for the nation from New Mexico," DeRaad said.
The best part of the job for DeRaad is setting up meetings where people from different aerospace companies are introduced to one another.
"We've set up a lot of forums for people to meet and have done some really cool things," DeRaad said. "We just recently partnered with the Space Force, the Defense Innovation Unit and the Air Force Research Lab last May to put on a 'State of the Space Industrial Base Workshop.'"
Wherever the future leads NewSpace New Mexico, DeRaad said they'll happily keep working toward their goal of being New Mexico's aerospace industry support system.
"We've had a lot of fun in what we do, and I hope we're here as a part of helping grow the space industry and making New Mexico the center of it all," DeRaad said.
Adam Evarts is a freelance reporter at the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @adam_evarts19
