The National Space Society (NSS) is an American independent, educational, grassroots, non-profit organization dedicated to the creation of a spacefaring civilization.  Founded as the National Space Institute (1974) and L5 Society (1975), which merged to form NSS in 1987 (seemerger proclamation), NSS is widely acknowledged as the preeminent citizen's voice on space. 

NSS has over 12 thousand members (and more supporters) and over 50 chapters in the United States and around the world.  The society also publishes Ad Astra magazine, an award-winning periodical chronicling the important developments in space.

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics is an American technical society dedicated to the global aerospace profession.

AIAA’s mission is to address the professional needs and interests of the past, current, and future aerospace workforce and to advance the state of aerospace science, engineering, technology, operations, and policy to benefit our global society.

Founded in 1963, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics has now (2012) more than 35,000 individual members and 90 corporate members. AIAA is one of the world’s largest technical society dedicated to the global aerospace profession. Created by the merger of the two great aerospace societies of the day, the American Rocket Society (founded in 1930 as the American Interplanetary Society), and the Institute of the Aerospace Sciences (established in 1933 as the Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences).

SES TechCom Services provides operational services, technical consultancy and high-tech products as well as integrated solutions to the satellite industry around the world.

It is a 100%-owned SES company (May 2013).

MSG, Meteosat Second Generation, is a serie of geostationary meteorological satellites operated by EUMETSAT. 

It consists of a series of four geostationary meteorological satellites, along with ground-based infrastructure, that will operate consecutively until 2020. The MSG satellites carry a pair of instruments — the Spinning Enhanced Visible and InfraRed Imager (SEVIRI), which has the capacity to observe the Earth in 12 spectral channels and provide image data which is core to operational forecasting needs, and the Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget (GERB) instrument supporting climate studies.

It was designed in response to user requirements to serve the needs of Nowcasting applications and numerical weather prediction. In addition the GERB instrument provides important data for climate monitoring and research.

The MSG satellites are spin-stabilised like the previous generation, but with many design improvements. The more frequent and comprehensive data collected by MSG also aids the weather forecaster in the swift recognition and prediction of dangerous weather phenomena such as thunderstorms, fog and explosive development of small but intense depressions which can lead to devastating wind storms.

The MSG satellites are 3.2 m in diameter and 2.4 m high and spins anti-clockwise at 100 RPM at an altitude of 36,000 km.

On January 29, 2004 the first Meteosat Second Generation satellite MSG-1, renamed to Meteosat-8, commenced routine operations.

Astra is the brand name for a number of geostationary communication satellites, both individually and as a group, which are owned and operated by SES S.A., a global satellite operator based in Betzdorf, in eastern Luxembourg. The name is also used to describe the pan-European broadcasting system provided by these satellites, the channels carried on them, and even the reception equipment.

SES, Société Européenne des Satellites, is a global satellite owner and operator, founded in 1985, and based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg. 

SES is the world’s second-largest telecommunications satellite operator by revenue and operates a fleet of 50 geostationary satellites able to reach 99% of the World’s population. These satellites provide satellite communication services to businesses and government agencies, and broadcast TV and radio channels to audiences worldwide. As of the end of 2011 SES satellites carry over 5,200 TV channels (including over 1200 in high definition), more than 1000 radio stations, and 44 direct-to-home(DTH) platforms across the world.

Inmarsat plc is a British satellite telecommunications company, offering global, mobile services, using a fleet of communications satellites. It provides telephony and data services to users worldwide, via portable or mobile terminals which communicate to ground stations through eleven geostationary telecommunications satellites. Inmarsat's network provides communications services to a range of governments, aid agencies, media outlets and businesses with a need to communicate in remote regions or where there is no reliable terrestrial network. 

Aside from its commercial services, Inmarsat provides global maritime distress and safety services (GMDSS) to ships and aircraft at no charge, as a public service.

The Inmarsat satellites are digital transponders that receive digital signals, reform the pulses, and then retransmit them to ground stations. Ground stations maintain usage and billing data and function as gateways to the public switched telephone network and the Internet.

United Launch Alliance (ULA) is a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing. ULA was formed in December 2006 by combining the teams at these companies which provide spacecraft launch services to the government of the United States. U.S. government launch customers include both the Department of Defense and NASA, as well as other organizations.

ULA provides launch services using three expendable launch systems – Delta II, Delta IV andAtlas V. The Atlas and Delta launch system families have been used for more than 50 years to carry a variety of payloads including weather, telecommunications and national security satellites, as well as deep space and interplanetary exploration missions in support of scientific research. ULA has also provided launch services for non-government satellites. 

Alliant Techsystems Inc., most commonly known as ATK, is one of the largest aerospace and defense companies in the United States with more than 18,000 employees in 22 states, Puerto Rico and internationally.

ATK is a pioneer in solid rocket propulsion systems, strategic missiles, missile defense, lightweight space deployables, solar arrays and satellite thermal management systems, while developing new technologies for small and micro satellites.

ATK’s human space capability includes solid rocket boosters, engineering services, astronaut tools and solar arrays. Its Reusable Solid Rocket Motors (RSRM)  have been propelling the space shuttle since its beginning. In the commercial market ATK offers its Liberty Launch Vehicle, which includes a five-segment solid rocket first stage and liquid fueled upper stage to transport astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). ATK is also developing the launch abort and attitude control motors for the Ares I Orion crew capsule, as well as the circular shape ultra-light solar arrays that will power the capsule.

Propulsion systems for  strategic missiles and missile defense systems is a core capability. ATK provides all three stages for the Minuteman III and Trident II D-5 missiles. In the missile defense arena, ATK also provides all three stages for the Ground-based Missile Defense (GMD) system. 

ATK’s involvement with Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) extends from launch vehicles to small and micro satellites. With ATK’s versatile product line of solid rocket motors, multiple launch vehicle configurations can be developed to support specific mission requirements.

The company’s small satellite capabilities include responsive development, constellation solutions, single-string and redundant avionics architectures. ATK also provides commercial boosters for the Delta rockets. The company is teamed with Lockheed Martin to provide the commercial Athena launch vehicle. 

Headquartered at Mojave Air and Space Port, The Spaceship Company is the aerospace production company, founded by Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites, which will be building a fleet of commercial spaceships (SpaceShipTwos) and carrier aircraft (WhiteKnightTwos) intended to make regular, commercial, manned space travel a reality.

The company has announced plans to build three WhiteKnightTwo aircraft and five SpaceShipTwo rocket planes.