The United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket carrying the Orion spacecraft lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., early Friday. On a "picture-perfect day," the Colorado-built spacecraft hurtled into space, orbited Earth twice and splashed down four hours later in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego. (Brent Lewis, The Denver Post)

If there's one thing Colorado aerospace proponents like, it's talking about where the state ranks in the national aerospace race.

But all statistics, data and wonkery aside, the state had a huge win last week with the launch of the NASA Orion mission, Air Force Space Command commander Gen. John E. Hyten said.

"Look how excited kids were. Look how excited the American people were," Hyten said. "It was on the front page of every newspaper. It was live on TV. It was exactly what the space business is supposed to do for this nation."

Hyten's keynote address Wednesday during the Colorado Space Roundup, at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, echoed many other comments from the day's panel discussions and speeches: Space is really, really cool, and much of the future depends on getting people to see that.

Spectators gather at Pineda Beach Patrick Air Force Base to watch the liftoff of Orion from Cape Canaveral. (Tim Shortt, Florida Today)

But therein lies the issue, said Colorado Space Business Roundtable president Edgar Johansson, who explained that aerospace still has a major perception problem.

"This is an incredible time for space, and yet so many people outside this room never hear that message," he said. "So we have to tell everybody. We have to scream it from the rooftops that we have a space program and it's not just Colorado and it's not just America. It's the world."

So, about those statistics: Colorado is currently the No. 3 space economy in the nation, according to the Colorado Space Coalition.

The state has about 400 aerospace-related companies and about 170,000 aerospace-related jobs, the greatest per-capita rate of any state, according to data from the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation.

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Colorado Space Roundup focuses eyes on top aerospace prize