by Garth Meyer
Who can best engineer ascent propulsion? Who can design the least detectable military laser? Who can throw a frisbee 50 yards, right to their teammate crossing into the endzone when they need a score?
These are questions on the mind of the South Bay aerospace industry this week as company employees prepare for the 21st Annual Aerospace Games (minus two pandemic years) Saturday, July 12.
Pickleball and basketball are new for 2025, and an Opening Ceremonies bonfire has been restored at Dockweiler State Beach the night before.
A total of 64 companies will bring teams Saturday, the most ever, for the second year the Games are held at El Camino College. Last year it was 46 companies.
Northrop Grumman has won it all the past two years, adding to their ten total Aerospace Games titles. Boeing has four and SpaceX four.
Last year, about 2,000 people competed and another 6,000 friends and family watched. A full 10,000 people are expected this year.
“Tryouts finished last week. This week is practice, practice, practice,” said Michelle Monroe, Northrop Grumman business communications specialist.
Events include soccer, dodgeball, volleyball, ultimate frisbee, tug of war, human pyramid, water-ball toss, cornhole, relay race and a canned-food drive, which is underway now, workers collecting food items at the office and otherwise. The non-perishables are brought to the competition Saturday and totaled to determine a winning team for the event.
The water-ball toss is like an egg toss with an eco-friendly balloon.
“We see an increase in participation in the Games almost every year,” said Jodi Kreiner, lead organizer, and a Northrop Grumman principal systems test engineer. “Part of it is more awareness, and also, this year we changed it to allow smaller companies to pair together to form a team. Twelve are partnering together.”
The Aerospace Games are financed by each company taking part; who now pay a $450 entry fee. Previously, when it was held at Dockweiler Beach, the winner would host the Games the following year, which led to a conflict of interest during the action.
“This system is better, as opposed to one company winning and being stuck with a $27,000 invoice,” Kreiner said.
The winning company still receives, or keeps, the inscribed trophy, which has been displayed at Northrop Grumman’s Space Park history exhibit since 2023.
All events are co-ed, except for elements of the two-person sports.
Early-summer tryouts at participating companies led to a main roster, and alternates for high-demand sports soccer and volleyball.
“Cuts have to be made at some point,” Kreiner said. “Some companies do first-come, first-serve.”
Team captains organize and hold practices for their company.
Basketball starts this year as five-on-five, full-court, with one female required to be in the game (or vice versa), if not, a team can play four men or four women.
Anyone may play multiple sports in the Aerospace Games, if contests do not overlap in the schedule.
“We’re struggling to hold all of this in a single day,” Kreiner said.
To account for that, soccer and volleyball start early, at 7 a.m., and ultimate frisbee and pickleball at 7:30 a.m. The rest begins at 8 a.m.; all concluding by 4 p.m.
Kreiner’s path to running the Aerospace Games went quickly. Joining Northrop Grumman in 2021, she participated in the Games her second summer (after the pandemic canellations) then became the dodgeball team captain, and organized other sport captains last year, then acted as an assistant lead on the day of the event.
Now she is the head.
“I volunteered for it and that was my bad,” she said. “(But) I’ve always loved it. It’s been a super-fun event. I’ve helped organize things before but not at this scale.”
Next year it will be run by a paid department at Northrop Grumman.
“It’s like an entire second job,” said Kreiner, who is an alternate for her company’s 2025 soccer and dodgeball teams.
The opening night bonfire for competitors, family and friends runs from 5 p.m. – 9 p.m. at Dockweiler Boach, with the lighting at 8 p.m.
“It’s like an homage to the Olympic torch,” Monroe said. ER
