Philadelphia Goes To Space

Ali Llewellyn and Andrew Thompson | open.NASA | January 22, 2013

Did you know that the International Space Apps Challenge has a Global Mainstage – kind of like a mission control for intergalactic space collaborations? Last year we were based in San Francisco, and this year we are excited to announce that the 2013 Global Mainstage will be in Philadelphia! 

We invited Philadelphia local lead Andrew Thompson, Community Evangelist from Azavea, to share about why he and his team got involved in Space Apps and their plans to lead the global event.

When I told a friend of mine that my organization was going to work with NASA to host the Global MainStage event in Philadelphia of NASA’s International Space Apps Challenge, he got really excited. “I would take a 50% pay cut to work for NASA,” my friend said. I share his enthusiasm. There is just something fundamentally amazing and compelling about space science and exploration. The challenges, tools and data with which folks at NASA grapple are the raw material of dreams and aspirations for everyone from kids to backyard astronomers to developers and technology nerds like us...