Space Apps NYC: Exploring This Year's NASA Challenges – with Twilio and Open Space
The NASA Space Apps Challenge — the world's largest hackathon — returns to NYC in November, and this year's challenges, written by NASA scientists and loaded with real mission data, just went live.
This event is open to the public whether you are interested in participating with the hackathon or just want to meet the people who do.
Featuring:
• A look at this year's NASA challenges and how to approach them
• A hands-on demo of building with Twilio Developer Evangelists Kaelyn Chresfield
• A demo of Open Space, an open-source data visualization tool used by the Hayden Planetarium by Micah Acinapura, American Museum of Natural History
• Time to meet teammates over drinks
Join us for a Friday-evening happy hour ahead of the NYC local edition of the NASA Space Apps Challenge, the world's largest hackathon. NASA releases this year's challenges — the problem statements you'll work on, each with real NASA data — on September 17, so this is your chance to learn about them, hear how the event works, meet potential teammates, and connect with NYC's mapping, mobility, and urban-tech communities — so you show up ready to go.
No coding at this event — it's all about getting oriented and building your team. The hackathon itself runs November 14–15, when teams start building with NASA's open data.
Hosted at NYU Tandon's Center for Urban Science + Progress (CUSP), with SWARM NYC, the Applied Urban Science Association (AUSA), NYU's School of Professional Studies (SPS), and Twilio.
Light bites and refreshments provided.
📅 Friday, September 18 · 5:30–7:00 PM
📍 CUSP, NYU Tandon — 370 Jay St, 13th floor, Downtown Brooklyn
🚀 The main event: Space Apps NYC hackathon, November 13–15
Space Apps NYC is the New York City local edition of the NASA Space Apps Challenge. https://www.spaceappschallenge.org/2026/local-events/new-york/
Visitor Information
This event will be held in the CUSP Learning Commons, located on the 13th Floor of 370 Jay St, Brooklyn, NY 11201. Please visit the NYU Tandon website for directions and a campus map. Advance registration through Luma is required for campus access at NYU for external guests.