NSS Active Chapter Report
A review of National Space Society local chapter websites and visible signs of recent activity
Updated August 9, 2026
Executive Summary
This August review finds substantial visible activity among the nine NSS chapters examined.
Seven of the nine chapters show identifiable 2026 activity through meetings, events, publications, outreach, organizational activity, or current external event listings. Several chapters show activity within the last month, and Sacramento L5 and South Houston both had publicly announced events for August 8, 2026.
Two chapters are more difficult to evaluate from their public websites. OASIS has a modern, apparently current 2026 website describing numerous chapter programs, but its public calendar does not presently contain usable event information. HAL5 continues to describe monthly public programs and substantial outreach activities, but the dated material on its website has not been updated recently enough to verify current activity.
This report measures publicly visible evidence of chapter activity, not whether a chapter is actually active internally. A chapter conducting meetings through email, Facebook, Meetup, Zoom, or other channels may appear less active when judged from its principal website alone.
Chapter Activity Summary
| Chapter | Latest Visible Activity | Assessment |
| Sacramento L5 Society | SpaceTalk scheduled for August 8, 2026; continuing meetings, engineering projects, website publishing and outreach. | Very Active |
| NSS South Houston Space Society | August 8, 2026 Johnson Space Center tour; September 12 MoonFlower Farms event already scheduled. | Very Active |
| NSS Seattle | Joint NSS Seattle/Mars Society Seattle meeting held July 12, 2026, with meetings described as recurring every second Sunday. | Active |
| Oklahoma Space Alliance | July 11, 2026 meeting, July Update and July Outreach publications; June meeting minutes also posted. | Active |
| NSS North Houston Space Society | Membership elected new officers and board members July 11, 2026 after continuing spring meetings and outreach activities. | Active |
| NSS of North Texas | Public meeting held July 12, 2026, following another meeting June 14. | Active |
| Chicago Society for Space Studies | New space-settlement/health article published July 4, 2026; public meeting held May 31. | Active |
| OASIS | Current 2026 website describes lectures, STEM volunteering, events and rocket/settlement projects, but its public calendar presently contains placeholder information rather than identifiable events. | Activity Not Yet Verifiable |
| Huntsville Alabama L5 Society – HAL5 | Website states that HAL5 offers monthly public talks plus STEM outreach and projects, but the site’s recent-news section is old and the site says it was last updated February 25, 2024. | Current Activity Unconfirmed |
Chapter Details
Sacramento L5 Society – Greater Sacramento, California
Status: Very Active
Sacramento L5 continues to show one of the broadest ranges of publicly visible chapter activity in this group.
The chapter advertised a SpaceTalk for Saturday, August 8, 2026, featuring L² (Lunar Legacy) and exploring humanity’s relationship with the Moon. The site also continues to document chapter meetings, engineering and Arduino projects, educational material, SpaceTalks and website activity.
The combination of recurring meetings, original technical projects, public presentations and frequent website publishing provides strong evidence of continuing chapter activity.
Source: https://sacramentol5society.nss.org/blog-posts/
Assessment: VERY ACTIVE
NSS South Houston Space Society – South Houston, Texas
Status: Very Active
South Houston has one of the freshest public schedules found in this review.
Its events page advertised a Johnson Space Center tour for August 8, 2026. It has already announced a September 12, 2026 tour of MoonFlower Farms. The chapter describes monthly meetings, educational programs, guest speakers, field trips, mentorship, community outreach and hands-on STEM activities.
The presence of both an immediate August event and a scheduled September event provides unusually clear evidence of forward planning.
Source: https://southhoustonspace.org/events/
Assessment: VERY ACTIVE
NSS Seattle – Western Washington
Status: Active
The official NSS Seattle website itself is substantially outdated. It still displays a 2017 meeting reference and explicitly acknowledges that the website has not been fully updated for some time.
That does not, however, appear to indicate an inactive chapter.
A current Meetup listing documents a joint NSS Seattle/Mars Society Seattle meeting on July 12, 2026 at the Museum of Flight, with Zoom participation available. The listing describes the gathering as a recurring second-Sunday monthly meeting and says the joint meetings have been conducted for more than two decades.
This is a good example of why chapter activity and website freshness should be measured separately.
Official site: https://seattle.nss.org/
Current meeting listing: https://www.meetup.com/our-universe-seattle/events/gqwgztyjckbqb/
Assessment: ACTIVE
Oklahoma Space Alliance – Central Oklahoma
Status: Active
Oklahoma Space Alliance continues to provide unusually detailed documentation of its operations.
The chapter announced a July 11, 2026 meeting in Norman, including space-news discussion, chapter business and planning for 2026. The website also provides June 13 meeting minutes along with both a July 2026 Update and July 2026 Outreach publication.
The continuing sequence of meetings, minutes and publications provides strong evidence of sustained organizational activity.
Source: https://osa.nss.org/
Assessment: ACTIVE
NSS North Houston Space Society – North Houston, Texas
Status: Active
North Houston shows recent organizational as well as program activity.
At a general membership meeting on July 11, 2026, chapter members elected a new slate of officers and board members. Earlier 2026 activity included public meetings, Science and Engineering Fair involvement and preparations for a Comicpalooza booth.
The chapter reports that its mission is carried out through monthly meetings intended to educate and inspire the community about space development.
The recent election and continuing meeting record demonstrate that the chapter is organizationally functioning rather than simply maintaining a legacy website.
Source: https://www.northhoustonspace.org/
Assessment: ACTIVE
National Space Society of North Texas – Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas
Status: Active
NSS of North Texas continues to show a regular meeting schedule.
The chapter listed a July 12, 2026 NSSNT meeting in Irving, following its June 14, 2026 meeting. Its site also contains continuing information for public participation and virtual-meeting notifications.
A separate “Space Rendezvous” listing on the site contains a 2025 date even though it appears among newer material, so that item was not used as evidence of 2026 activity.
The June and July meetings themselves provide clear current evidence.
Source: https://ntx.nss.org/
Assessment: ACTIVE
Chicago Society for Space Studies – Greater Chicago, Illinois
Status: Active
Chicago continues to maintain an active public-information presence.
On July 4, 2026, the chapter published Space Health as Critical Infrastructure for Lunar and Mars Settlement. Its meetings section also documents the May 31, 2026 public presentation Could We Understand an Alien Message?
CSSS combines meetings with a substantial stream of articles and space-development material, giving it a broader public-education presence than meeting announcements alone would indicate.
Source: https://www.chicagospace.org/
Assessment: ACTIVE
OASIS – Greater Los Angeles, California
Status: Activity Not Yet Verifiable from Public Calendar
OASIS now has a polished current website carrying a 2026 copyright and describes an extensive program that includes public lectures and seminars, air-show participation, STEM volunteering, advocacy, amateur rocketry and space-settlement modeling.
The difficulty is documenting when those activities are actually occurring.
The public calendar displays July 2026, but the event fields still contain template text such as “Event Title,” “Event Time” and “Event Date,” rather than identifiable chapter events.
The website therefore suggests an organization being actively presented and possibly rebuilt, but there is currently insufficient dated public evidence to rate its recent operating tempo.
Official site: https://www.oasis-nss.org/
Calendar: https://www.oasis-nss.org/calendar
Assessment: ACTIVITY NOT YET VERIFIABLE FROM PUBLIC CALENDAR
Huntsville Alabama L5 Society – HAL5 – Northern Alabama
Status: Current Activity Unconfirmed
HAL5 has historically maintained an extensive program of public talks, STEM outreach and technical projects.
Its website continues to state that it offers monthly free public talks, typically on the first Thursday of the month, and describes education outreach, Project HALO and other activities.
However, the site’s “Recent News” entries are largely from 2016-2018, and the site’s footer states that it was last updated February 25, 2024.
The current NSS directory continues to list HAL5 as a chapter, but the public HAL5 website alone does not provide enough fresh dated information to establish its August 2026 activity level.
HAL5 site: https://www.hal5.org/news-events.shtml
NSS directory: https://nss.org/nss-chapters-directory/
Assessment: CURRENT ACTIVITY UNCONFIRMED
Overall Findings
The review illustrates an important distinction between chapter activity and digital visibility.
Of the nine chapters reviewed:
7 show identifiable 2026 activity: Sacramento L5 Society; NSS South Houston Space Society; NSS Seattle; Oklahoma Space Alliance; NSS North Houston Space Society; NSS of North Texas; and Chicago Society for Space Studies.
2 lack sufficient current dated public evidence: OASIS and Huntsville Alabama L5 Society – HAL5.
The strongest public activity signals come from chapters that continuously publish specific dates, upcoming events, meeting reports, minutes, projects or newsletters.
The Seattle case is particularly informative: its official website appears obsolete, but a current external event listing shows the chapter continuing to meet regularly. Conversely, an attractive and current-looking website does not by itself establish current chapter activity if dated events cannot be found.
For anyone attempting to discover and participate in an NSS chapter, the most useful public signal is therefore not merely that a chapter has a website. It is the ability to answer a much simpler question:
“What is this chapter doing now, and when can I participate?”
Status reflects publicly discoverable information available as of August 9, 2026. Absence of recent website information should not be interpreted as proof that a chapter is inactive.
NSS Chapter Websites
If you’d like to suggest additional chapter links for inclusion in this report, please email Ed Kulis at [email protected].
- Sacramento L5 Society: https://sacramentol5society.nss.org/
- NSS South Houston Space Society: https://southhoustonspace.org
- NSS Seattle: https://seattle.nss.org/
- Oklahoma Space Alliance: https://osa.nss.org/
- NSS North Houston Space Society: https://www.northhoustonspace.org/
- NSS of North Texas: https://ntx.nss.org/
- Chicago Society for Space Studies: https://www.chicagospace.org/
- OASIS: https://www.oasis-nss.org/
- Huntsville Alabama L5 Society – HAL5: https://www.hal5.org/
NSS Chapters Directory: https://nss.org/nss-chapters-directory/
