NSS Active Chapter Report

A review of National Space Society local chapter websites and visible signs of recent activity

Updated September 12, 2026

Executive Summary

This September review finds substantial publicly visible activity among the nine National Space Society chapters examined.

Seven of the nine chapters show identifiable 2026 activity through meetings, events, publications, outreach, organizational activity, or current external event listings.

The strongest change since the August review is the amount of immediately current activity. Five chapters have publicly announced September events: Sacramento L5 Society and the South Houston and North Houston chapters have activities scheduled for September 12; NSS Seattle and NSS of North Texas have meetings scheduled for September 13; and North Texas has an additional Space Rendezvous scheduled for September 25.

Chicago Society for Space Studies held a substantial three-presentation meeting on August 23, while Oklahoma Space Alliance continues to document meetings and publish its Update and Outreach newsletters.

Two chapters remain difficult to evaluate from their public websites. OASIS maintains a modern current-looking website, but its public calendar still does not contain identifiable dated chapter events. Huntsville Alabama L5 Society continues to describe monthly programs and extensive outreach, but 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. Chapters conducting meetings through email, Facebook, Meetup, Zoom, or other channels may appear less active when judged from their principal website alone.

Chapter Activity Summary

Chapter Details

Sacramento L5 Society – Greater Sacramento, California

Status: Very Active

Sacramento L5 continues to show a broad range of publicly visible chapter activity.

A SpaceTalk is scheduled for September 12 featuring Dr. Jen Blank of NASA Ames Research Center and Blue Marble Space. Her presentation, The NASA BRAILLE Project: Preparing for a Robotic Mission to a Martian Lava Tube, examines robotic exploration of volcanic caves as analogs for future exploration of the Martian subsurface.

The chapter continues to document monthly meetings, maintain its SpaceTalk archive, publish engineering and Arduino projects, produce chapter and website activity reports, and conduct outreach to other NSS chapters.

Source:

https://sacramentol5society.nss.org/novae/spacetalks/

Assessment: VERY ACTIVE

NSS North Houston Space Society – North Houston, Texas

Status: Very Active

North Houston shows especially fresh public activity this month.

The chapter announced a September 12 meeting at the Houston Saengerbund featuring retired NASA engineer George Salazar. His presentation, Challenges Certifying Human–Computer Interfaces for Deep Space Missions, covers NASA human-rating certification, astronaut interfaces from Apollo through Artemis, autonomous systems and digital twins.

The announcement was published September 7, providing clear evidence of an actively maintained public program.

Source:

https://www.northhoustonspace.org/

Assessment: VERY ACTIVE

National Space Society of North Texas – Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas

Status: Very Active

NSS of North Texas currently shows one of the strongest forward schedules in this review.

A September 13 public meeting will feature Dr. Meredith Beckford-Smart of Space Analog Reconnaissance presenting Space Analog Missions. The chapter has also announced a September 25 Space Rendezvous in Irving.

These follow an August 9 chapter meeting and an August 28 Space Rendezvous, demonstrating a continuing sequence of regular public activity.

Source:

https://ntx.nss.org/

Assessment: VERY ACTIVE

NSS South Houston Space Society – South Houston, Texas

Status: Very Active

South Houston continues its pattern of hands-on and field-trip-oriented chapter activity.

The chapter’s public events page lists a September 12, 2026 tour of MoonFlower Farms. This follows its August 8 Johnson Space Center tour.

The chapter describes a broader program of monthly meetings, educational programs, guest speakers, networking, field trips and community outreach.

Source:

https://southhoustonspace.org/events/

Assessment: VERY ACTIVE

NSS Seattle – Western Washington

Status: Active

NSS Seattle continues to illustrate why chapter activity and website freshness should be considered separately.

Although its official NSS website remains substantially outdated, its current Meetup presence lists a joint NSS Seattle/Mars Society Seattle meeting for September 13 at the Museum of Flight. Zoom participation is also available.

The event is described as a recurring second-Sunday meeting, part of a joint monthly series that has operated for more than two decades.

Current meeting listing:

https://www.meetup.com/our-universe-seattle/

Official site:

https://seattle.nss.org/

Assessment: ACTIVE

Chicago Society for Space Studies – Greater Chicago, Illinois

Status: Active

Chicago continues to maintain an active public-information and educational presence.

Its August 23 public meeting featured three presentations addressing space elevators, nuclear fusion propulsion and the CSSS Commercial Space Station Design Cost Web App.

The combination of meetings, technical presentations, original web tools and continuing publication gives CSSS a broader public presence than meeting announcements alone would indicate.

Source:

https://www.chicagospace.org/

Assessment: ACTIVE

Oklahoma Space Alliance – Central Oklahoma

Status: Active

Oklahoma Space Alliance continues to provide detailed public documentation of its activities.

The site lists an August 8 meeting and an August 2026 Update, continuing its established pattern of meetings, minutes and alternating Update and Outreach publications.

Although no September meeting announcement was visible in this review, the recent sequence of documented activity provides clear evidence of continuing operation.

Source:

https://osa.nss.org/

Assessment: ACTIVE

OASIS – Greater Los Angeles, California

Status: Activity Not Yet Verifiable from Public Calendar

OASIS maintains a polished current website describing public lectures, STEM volunteering, advocacy, amateur rocketry and space-settlement projects.

The difficulty remains establishing when those activities are taking place. The public calendar continues to display template fields such as “Event Title,” “Event Time” and “Event Date” rather than identifiable current chapter events.

The website therefore gives the appearance of an organization being actively presented, but there is still insufficient dated public evidence to establish 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 historically has maintained an extensive program of public talks, STEM outreach and technical projects.

Its website still describes monthly public programs, education outreach, Project HALO and other activities. However, the site’s dated news and event material remains old, and the footer states that the site was last updated February 25, 2024.

The current NSS Chapters Directory continues to list HAL5, but the chapter website by itself does not provide enough fresh dated material to establish its September 2026 activity level.

HAL5:

https://www.hal5.org/

NSS Chapters Directory:

https://nss.org/nss-chapters-directory/

Assessment: CURRENT ACTIVITY UNCONFIRMED

Overall Findings

Of the nine chapters reviewed:

• 7 show identifiable 2026 activity: Sacramento L5 Society, NSS North Houston Space Society, NSS of North Texas, NSS South Houston Space Society, NSS Seattle, Chicago Society for Space Studies and Oklahoma Space Alliance.
• 5 have publicly visible September events: Sacramento L5 Society, NSS North Houston Space Society, NSS of North Texas, NSS South Houston Space Society and NSS Seattle.
• 2 lack sufficient current dated public evidence: OASIS and Huntsville Alabama L5 Society – HAL5.

The September review reinforces the distinction between chapter activity and digital visibility.

The strongest public activity signals come from chapters that continually publish specific dates, upcoming events, meeting reports, projects, newsletters or other evidence showing visitors not merely what the organization is, but what it is doing now and when someone can participate.

Status reflects publicly discoverable information available as of September 12, 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 North Houston Space Society: https://www.northhoustonspace.org/
• NSS of North Texas: https://ntx.nss.org/
• NSS South Houston Space Society: https://southhoustonspace.org/
• NSS Seattle: https://seattle.nss.org/
• Oklahoma Space Alliance: https://osa.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/