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February 11, 2026 Luncheon with Jim Bridenstine
February 11 @ 11:30 am – 1:00 pm EST
Jim Bridenstine, Managing Partner for The Artemis Group.
Jim Bridenstine, managing partner for The Artemis Group, speaker, and media contributor, was the 13th Administrator of NASA, where he was responsible for managing NASA’s 70,000-person workforce and $23 billion annual budget. As administrator, he led NASA in advancing American aeronautics, science, and space exploration objectives.
[ Stand out front with MSBR’s New “Sponsor the Speaker” promotion! Learn more here.]
Under Bridenstine’s leadership, NASA launched the Artemis program to explore the Moon and prepare for missions to Mars. Through the Artemis program, NASA developed the Orion crew capsule and the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket, the most powerful rocket ever built. These state-of-the-art systems will help build the Gateway, an open architecture space station orbiting the Moon for deep space science and discovery. Under the Artemis program, astronauts will learn how to live and work on another world for long periods of time utilizing in situ resources in preparation for long endurance missions to Mars.
Prior to serving at NASA, Bridenstine represented Oklahoma’s First Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served on the Armed Services Committee and the Science, Space and Technology Committee. He was part of a small group of Strategic Forces Subcommittee members who created the Space Force.
Bridenstine’s career in federal service began in 1998 as a pilot in the U.S. Navy. After flight school, his first assigned aircraft was the E-2C Hawkeye which he flew off the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier. It was there that he flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan and accrued most of his 1,900 flight hours and 333 arrested landings on an aircraft carrier. In these campaigns he earned an Air Medal and a Navy Commendation Medal with Combat “V” among others.
After transitioning from active duty, Bridenstine returned to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to be the executive director of the Tulsa Air and Space Museum & Planetarium, continued serving in the U.S. Navy Reserve, and eventually ran for U.S. Congress.
Registration – Please contact Missy at missy@mdspace.org to register
Stand Out Front with MSBR’s New “Sponsor the Speaker” Promotion
Your MSBR board is continually looking for ways to both help our member companies gain meaningful market exposure and increase our ability to support STEM organizations throughout Maryland. To that end, we are pleased to announce the introduction of a “Sponsor the Speaker” option for our luncheons this year.
The $1,200 per event sponsorship cost provides you with the honor of introducing that month’s speaker, accompanied by a slide with your company’s name and logo, as well as a single seat for your company’s designated representative at the head table.
The full sponsorship cost will be a donation directly to MSBR’s STEM Grant Fund, which supports STEM groups – largely comprised of students – throughout the state of Maryland. Last year, MSBR proudly donated $60,000 to approximately 30 groups, many of whom counted on our support to fund this year’s operations.
We hope that you will consider sponsoring our first luncheon, on February 11, 2026, featuring the Honorable Jim Bridenstine, former NASA Administrator. As a reminder, we have a total of five lunches scheduled this year and sponsorships are offered on a first-come, first-served basis.
Please contact Missy at missy@mdspace.org to sponsor or with any questions.