Perhaps the greatest highlight of this year’s Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado, was the live video conversation on April 9 between Air Force General John J. Raymond at the Broadmoor and Expedition 59 Flight Engineer Nick Hague of NASA aboard the International Space Station. U.S. Air Force Colonel Hague discussed his military heritage and his life and work on the orbital outpost with General Raymond, the commanding general of U.S. Air Force Space Command. Colonel Hague is in his second month of a six-and-a-half-month mission aboard the complex.

Here’s an excerpt from an email sent by U.S. Air Force Colonel Westover to the members of the NASA, Space Symposium, and CEAVCO Audio Visual team that made this conversation possible: “The audience was packed with thousands of the world’s space industry leaders (including NASA), and standing room only in the overflow rooms – the whole of the conference tuned in to see the NASA team rock their world. Mitch Brown [General Raymond’s aide] said later that General Raymond was hounded all day by folks saying how cool the downlink was – especially his water magic at the end.”

During the conversation, Colonel Hague talks about the power of team and collective accomplishments. We couldn’t agree more. Establishing the video link was critical, and expectations regarding staging, imagery, and lighting were literally sky high. CEAVCO’s team, including Brian Miller, Steve Struble, Rick Eichenberger, Eric Newkirk, and Nick Williams, was instrumental in making this inspirational, tightly timed conversation happen.

The Space Foundation’s Space Symposium is the premier global, commercial, civil, military, and emergent space conference. Each year, the Space Symposium brings together space leaders from around the world to discuss and dream about the future of space. The event attracts more than 11,000 attendees from 30 nations. This was CEAVCO’s 13th year of support, and together NASA, the Space Symposium, and CEAVCO knocked it out of the park. Go team!