Space Apps Seattle

Welcome to Space Apps Seattle

Home of the Seattle NASA International Space Apps Challenge →
A global hackathon in the city that unites tech and space!


October 3 – 5, 2025

1100 SW 27th St Renton, WA 98057

What is Space Apps?

  • Build a team
  • Pick a NASA Mission challenge or bring your own
  • Hack away! 

You have two days to build your project and put it before the judges.

Winners that become finalists in NASA’s global judging round have a shot at a special tour of Kennedy Space Center!

Come to Space Apps if you are…

  • A programmer, a data scientist, an engineer, a storyteller, a student, an educator, a project manager, an entrepreneur
  • You love data and you want to transform NASA’s open data sets into real world applications
  • You are passionate about space and you want to join in building our future together for the benefit of humanity.
  • You love hardware. Yes! Hardware projects welcome – Space Apps is more than “apps”! Bring your love for boards and dream up a solution for Earth or your own mission in space.

NASA Space App Speakers & Judges

Meet Our 2025 Featured Speaker

Eric Sahr Optical Navigation Lead Engineer for NASA’s Lucy Mission

Eric Sahr

Eric Sahr is the Optical Navigation Lead Engineer for NASA’s Lucy Mission — the first spacecraft to explore Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids.

Lucy successfully encountered main belt asteroid Donaldjohanson in April 2025, serving as the final dress rehearsal prior to Lucy’s encounters with its first four Trojan asteroids in 2027-2028. Prior to Lucy, he contributed to NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Sample Return Mission, the first US mission to return an asteroid sample to Earth. OSIRIS-REx is a recent recipient of the Collier Trophy, an honor previously awarded to Orville Wright, Pan American Airways, and the Apollo 11 crew.

In recognition of his work on OSIRIS-REx, the main belt asteroid 333036 Sahr is named after him.

Read More…

In the 2025 keynote, Eric will walk through real challenges from NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission, where navigators had to quickly solve critical problems millions of miles from Earth. From navigating a spacecraft around an uncooperative asteroid to processing navigation solutions in 3 hours instead of 24, Eric will share how hackers adapt when things don’t go as planned. Learn how optical navigation works and see examples of the creative problem-solving that keeps space missions on track!




Meet Our 2024 Judges

John Conafay →

Integrate

Alma Mohapatra →

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Stay in Orbit!

Space Northwest will send you Space Apps updates and invite you to Space Data Hackers monthly meetups

2025 Space Apps Seattle Partners

Mission Accelerator Pacific Northwest Logo, a sponsor of Space Apps Seattle

Space Dreams Fueled by the Best Food on Earth

If you are a Renton-area restaurant interested in sponsoring Space Apps 2025, contact info@spaceappsseattle.org.

Space Apps Seattle is a program of Space Northwest