Press Releases

Today, U.S. Representative Matt Cartwright (PA-08), Ranking Member on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and Science, joined leaders from the Department of Energy (DOE) and Department of Defense (DoD) to announce a first-of-its-kind Quantum & Space Collaboration intended to accelerate the development of quantum technology in space and national defense efforts. 

The announcement was made at a press conference held at Wilkes-Barre’s Luzerne Bank Building, owned by Michael Bloxton, co-founder and CEO of Nebula Enterprise, one of the newly formed alliance’s strategic partners.

The public-private joint venture – which also includes hi-tech firms Infleqtion and  Accenture Federal Services – brings together industry leaders in space-based communications, cyber and energy security, intelligence gathering; AI/machine learning; and high-precision data collection. The Collaboration aims to accelerate commercialization and enable new capabilities to further DOE, DoD and NASA mission objectives in the next five years.

Cartwright, in explaining what this new alliance means for Northeast Pennsylvania, lauded the coalition as “just one of the ways we can collaborate to anchor scientific advancement and production know-how in the region to create the jobs and economy of the future.”

"Our region holds the potential to lead the nation’s space economy because of cooperative efforts such as this one between federal agencies, private industry, higher learning institutions, economic development intermediaries and government officials,” Cartwright said.

“Northeast Pennsylvania represents a community ready, willing, and able to make itself the center of the quantum supply chain for our nation. All the ingredients exist in these fertile grounds to execute the vision. The local attitude to get things done and move forward is why we at Nebula and I personally will focus on NEPA,” Bloxton said

“We’re excited to be part of advancing the very latest technologies for Defense and NASA missions. These technologies have broad societal impacts beyond national security, and we consider the Collaboration a steppingstone towards commercializing computing infrastructure that will enable a growing space economy. New applied use cases of technologies such as quantum computing and sensing will also benefit and augment several existing terrestrial industries over time,” Peter Stridh, co-founder at Nebula, said.

Quantum technology explores how matter and energy behave at the level of atoms or subatomic particles and has led to the development of such everyday technologies as lasers, smartphones, GPS satellites and medical devices. Future advances in the field promise to improve space-based navigation, national security and communications.

“This Collaboration has been long in the making and is vital for ensuring that the United States remains at the forefront of innovation,” Rima Kasia Oueid, lead/architect for the Quantum Space Collaboration and Senior Commercialization Executive at the DOE’s Office of Technology Transitions (OTT), said in a public statement. “We stand on the brink of a new economic era - one that expands into space, propelled by current and soon-to-be-realized quantum technologies. These advancements are poised to enhance global safety, economic stability and overall human welfare, while also unlocking the potential to discover and efficiently use space resources. This could also create skilled blue- and white-collar jobs of the future to build the supply chain. Our target is to begin space environmental demonstrations using quantum technologies by 2024 and to evaluate use cases and new commercialization opportunities.”