62 Mile Club

U.S. national_space_policy_6-28-10 Released on June 28, 2010.

Source: Space Ref

Dear Members of Congress:

We, the undersigned space leaders, are strong supporters of human spaceflight. We are writing to urge you to both (1) fully fund the commercial crew to Space Station program proposed in the President’s FY2011 budget request for NASA, and (2) accelerate the pace and funding of NASA’s human space exploration projects beyond Earth orbit.

These twin pillars of human spaceflight are each crucial to the long-term health of our Nation’s space program. They are also interdependent.

And they will together generate thousands of high tech U.S. jobs for people in multiple states, including Florida, Alabama, Texas, California, Nevada, Virginia, Colorado, New Mexico, and Maryland.

Among us are over 50 space leaders–former NASA executives and advisors, former astronauts, CEOs of firms large and small, a former FAA Associate Administrator, space scientists, space journalists, and others. We are a diverse group, but we are only a handful of the Nation’s citizens who support U.S. leadership in human space flight in general, and the development of commercial human spaceflight in particular.

We specifically wish to express our concern that the commercial crew to Space Station program is sometimes seen as optional or too risky to America’s future in space, but nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, the commercial crew to Space Station program is a fundamental enabler of NASA’s human space exploration beyond Earth orbit, specifically because it will free up the NASA dollars needed to develop deep space transportation and exploration systems for astronauts.

Moreover, a commercial crew to Station transportation system, involving multiple separate space lines as the President has proposed, is more robust than a single-legged transportation plan, whether domestic or foreign.

For these reasons and others, we fully and enthusiastically support both full funding for the commercial crew to Space Station program and also the acceleration of exploration beyond Earth orbit, as the top two priorities within NASA’s human spaceflight budget.

Together, these two efforts will also:

• Provide an affordable and fast way to close the current post-Shuttle gap in indigenous U.S. human orbital spaceflight capability, by using launch vehicles that already exist.
• Provide a safe and robust future transportation network to low Earth orbit and beyond for U.S. astronauts. Ensure that our dependence on foreign human launch capabilities is reduced quickly and economically.
• Reduce space access costs and enhance our national security industrial base.
• Allow NASA to better focus on accelerating space exploration and the development of its enabling technologies.
• Excite young Americans to careers in science, engineering, and technology.
• Stimulate the private sector economy and the development of space commerce over in a dramatic way, by catalyzing other U.S. space interests such as space tourism and the operation of private in-space research facilities.
• Excite entrepreneurs to envision and then give birth to new commercial services and capabilities in space, further stimulating the Nation’s economy. Others have said that one of the greatest fears of any generation is not leaving things better for the young people of the next generation. We agree with this.

Therefore we reiterate that the near term development of commercial human spaceflight and a clearly defined program of human exploration beyond Earth orbit are both essential. Without either, our Nation’s leadership in space will significantly suffer.

We urge you to make these two goals your highest priorities within NASA’s FY2011 budget for human spaceflight.

Sincerely,

The undersigned, listed alphabetically

Mr. Bretton Alexander
President, Commercial Spaceflight Federation
Washington, D.C.

Mr. Eric Anderson
President and CEO, Space Adventures
Vienna, Virginia

Dr. Daniel N. Baker
Director, Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado
Boulder, Colorado

Dr. Jim Bell
Professor, Planetary Scientist, and Member of the Mars Exploration Rover team, Cornell University
Ithaca, New York

Capt. Ken Bowersox, Ret.
Former NASA Astronaut, and Vice President of Mission Assurance & Astronaut Safety, Space Exploration Technologies Corp.
Hawthorne, California

Mr. Chad Brinkley
President, DCI Services and Consulting
Houston, Texas

Ms. Heather Bulk
President and CEO, Special Aerospace Services
Boulder, Colorado

Mr. John Carmack
President and CEO, Armadillo Aerospace
Caddo Mills, Texas

Dr. Peter Diamandis
Chairman and CEO, X-Prize Foundation
Playa Vista, California

Mr. Frank DiBello
President and CEO, Space Florida
Kennedy Space Center, Florida

Dr. Michael Drake
Head, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona
Tucson, Arizona

Mr. Art Dula
CEO, Excalibur Almaz
Houston, Texas

Ms. Esther Dyson
Principal, EDyson Ventures
New York, New York

Mr. Edward Ellegood
Director of Aerospace Development, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Daytona Beach, Florida

Dr. Robert Farquhar
Senior Mission Designer, KinetX Corp.
Fairfax, Virginia

Mr. Jeff Feige
CEO, Orbital Outfitters
Los Angeles, California

Mr. Jim Foreman
President, Blue Smoke LLC
Houston, Texas

Dr. Owen Garriott
Former NASA Astronaut, and Aerospace Consultant
Huntsville, Alabama

Mr. Richard Garriott
Commercial Astronaut
Austin, Texas

Mr. Jeffrey Greason
CEO, XCOR Aerospace
Mojave, California

Dr. Jeffrey Hoffman
Former NASA Astronaut, and MIT professor
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Mr. Richard Homans
Executive Director, New Mexico Spaceport
Las Cruces, New Mexico

Dr. Scott Hubbard
Former Director of NASA Ames, and Professor
San Francisco, California

Mr. Michael Joyce
President, Next Giant Leap LLC
Boulder, Colorado

Mr. Dale Ketcham
Director, Spaceport Research & Technology Institute
Meritt Island, Florida

Mr. Jim Kennedy
Former Director, NASA Kennedy Space Center
Cocoa Beach, Florida

Mr. Glenn King
Chief Operating Officer, NASTAR; Pennsylvania
Southampton, Pennsylvania

Mr. Bill Khourie
Executive Director, Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority, Oklahoma Spaceport
Burns Flat, Oklahoma

Dr. Byron Lichtenberg
Former NASA Astronaut
Houston, Texas

Mr. Todd Lindner
Director, Cecil Field Spaceport, Jacksonville Aviation Authority
Jacksonville, Florida

Dr. John Logsdon
Founder, Space Policy Institute, George Washington University.
Washington, D.C.

Lt. Col. J. Mike Lounge, Ret.
Former Astronaut, and President, Cisneros Innovation Strategies
Houston, Texas

Dr. Stephen Mackwell
Director, Lunar and Planetary Institute
Houston, Texas

Mr. David Masten
CEO, Masten Space Systems Inc.
Mojave, California

Mr. Bill Mitchell
CEO, Environmental Tectonics Corporation
Southampton, Pennsylvania

Mr. James A.M. Muncy
Co-Founder, Space Frontier Foundation
Alexandria, Virginia

Dr. John Muratore
Former Space Shuttle Flight Director and University of Tennessee Space Institute
Tullahoma, Tennessee

Mr. Elon Musk
CEO and CTO, Space Exploration Technologies Corp.
Hawthorne, California

Mr. Miles O’Brien
Aerospace Journalist, and Managing Editor of “This Week in Space”
New York, New York

Mr. Rich Phillips
President, Phillips & Company
Austin, Texas

Mr. Joseph E. Palaia, IV
Manager, NewSpace Center, and Vice President, 4Frontiers Corp.
New Port Richey, Florida

Mr. Brian Rishikof
CEO, Odyssey Space Research
Houston, Texas

Dr. Rusty Schweickart
Former NASA Astronaut, and Aerospace Consultant
Los Angeles, California

Col. Richard Searfoss, Ret.
Former NASA Astronaut, and Chief Test Pilot, XCOR Aerospace
Mojave, California

Mr. Frank Sietzen, Jr.
Author, and Former Editor in Chief of Ad Astra Magazine of the National Space Society
Arlington, Virginia

Mr. Mark Sirangelo
Chairman, Sierra Nevada Corporation Space Systems, and Chairman of the Board, Commercial Spaceflight Federation
Lousville, Colorado

Mr. Frederick A. Slane
Executive Director, Space Infrastructure Foundation, Inc.
Colorado Springs, Colorado

Ms. Linda Kenny Sloan
President, Information Universe
Carson, California

Ms. Patti Grace Smith
Former FAA Associate Administrator, and Aerospace Consultant
Washington, D.C.

Mr. John Spencer
Founder and President, Space Tourism Society
Los Angeles, California

Dr. Alan Stern
Former NASA Associate Administrator for Science, and Aerospace Consultant
Niwot, Colorado

Dr. Frederick A. Tarantino
President ad CEO, Universities Space Research Association
Columbia, Maryland

Mr. Rick N. Tumlinson,
Co-founder, Space Frontier Foundation
Toluca Lake, California

Col. Jim Voss, Ret.
Former NASA Astronaut, and Director of Advanced Programs, Sierra Nevada Corporation Space Systems
Louisville, Colorado

Mr. Robert W. Werb
Co-founder, Space Frontier Foundation
Nyack, New York

Mr. Stuart Witt
General Manager, Mojave Air and Space Port
Mojave, California

Q&A: He Wants Free Markets in Outer Space (Source: Houston Chronicle): As CEO of MirCorp, a private, Dutch-based company that leased Russia’s Mir space station and contracted the flight for the first space tourist, Dennis Tito in 2001, Jeffrey Manber had a front-row seat for NASA relations with Russia and the early commercialization of space. With NASA about to become more reliant upon Russia than ever, and President Barack Obama wanting more capitalism in space, Eric Berger spoke to Manber. Read full article here.

Editorial: Private Sector Should Fund Space Missions (Source: CNJ Online)
America’s future in space is entrepreneurial. President Barack Obama partly has recognized that reality in his recent speeches and policy changes on NASA and American space policy. If the federal government really wanted to help, it should take up the proposal by former Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Bob Walker to give a 25-year tax exemption to any company that maintained a base on the moon for 365 consecutive days. This reward would appeal to such large, high-tech companies as GE, Microsoft, Apple and Intel.

There would be no cost to taxpayers; and no government bureaucracy involved. “The tax break wouldn’t come into effect until the moon base was constructed,” Hudgins explained. “But think of all the revenue paid by the private infrastructure” that built the moon base.

We encourage New Mexico’s and Texas’ congressional delegation to look critically at the president’s impractical and expensive space boondoggles, especially at a time when the country is already $12.7 trillion in debt. But they should embrace Obama’s push toward privatization — then push it further.  Read full article here.

Editorial: Space: The Free-Market Frontier (Source: OC Register)
America’s future in space is entrepreneurial. President Barack Obama partly has recognized that reality in his recent speeches and policy changes on NASA and American space policy. “I give Obama mixed reviews on his space policy,” Ed Hudgins told us. He’s director of advocacy and a senior scholar at the Atlas Institute, and author of “Space: The Free Market Frontier.” There were positive elements, he said, including “cancelling the Constellation,” a proposed new mission to the moon. And the president is encouraging “the private sector for low-Earth-orbit missions.”

Mr. Hudgins said that only the private sector can make prices for a product or service go down as quality goes up, such as with computers, TV sets and the global airline industry. The same is true for making space flights more common for commercial or tourist missions. He pointed to such ongoing private space efforts as those by Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, Elon Musk’s SpaceX in Hawthorne and Robert Bigelow’s Bigelow Aerospace.

On the negative side is Mr. Obama’s vision for NASA, which is struggling for new missions as the Space Shuttle program is retired this year. He talked about a mission to Mars occurring in his lifetime. “I expect to be around to see it,” the president said in an April 15 speech at Cape Canaveral, Fla. Given that the president is 48 and could live another 40 years or so, that’s not all that ambitious. He also called for landing an astronaut on an asteroid within 15 years. Read full article here.

Russia Aims to Follow U.S. Lead in Private Funding of Space Projects (Source: RIA Novosti)
Russia wants to encourage private companies to invest in space exploration, the head of the country’s space agency said on Thursday. “Manned space systems have become rather expensive and private investment should be attracted more actively, like it is in the U.S.,” Roscosmos head Anatoly Perminov said.

He said Russia had not seen the expansion of private investment into space exploration witnessed in the Unites States because Russian companies were not willing to invest in projects due to the “lack of fast return on investment.” Perminov said the design cycle for a new spacecraft takes at least three years and only after this time period the companies could receive revenues. Russia’s government has increased national space expenditures by 40% over the past five years. Last year, Russia spent $2.8 billion on its space program. Read full article here.

Related links

• Event @X PRIZE  Foundation this Friday, April 30. All are invited.
• May 4th Student Space launch in New Mexico – Public welcome to attend after approved registration.
• Space Investment Summit 8, Chicago, May 26, 2010.
• Space Shuttle Atlantis’ last scheduled flight scheduled for May 14, 2010.
• Space X’s Falcon 9 debut flight scheduled for May 8th, 2010.

9 years ago today, Dennis Tito, became the first self-funded private space traveler. Happy Space Tourism Day!

• Obama’s Space Program: More Conservative than Bush’s  by Rand Simberg
• Jacksonville well-suited for privatized space industry by Mark Szakonyi
• Commercial Insurance for Private Space Travel A Serious Concern posted at Stillaig.com
• Space: The “New West” Frontier by D.A. Barber of the Huffington Post
• Private space tourism taking off without us by Stuart O. Witt & Peter Navarro
• Space: Roles exist for both public, private sectors , Editorial in  Sioux City Journal.com

A brief break from all the serious space news.

Space Monkey from Leo Burnett on Vimeo.

Source: CSA

Webinars to Develop “the Meat” of California Space Enterprise Strategic Plan 2010-2012

Now’s the time to participate in the defining of the tasks and objectives of the next (fourth) California Space Enterprise Strategic Plan which will guide the next 3 years of activity. Six webinars during the week of April 26 will cover: Vision, Competitiveness, Industrial Base, Science/Technology, Education/Workforce, and Industry Communications. Participation is free, please see the linked flier and join us for any or all of the webinar sessions.

http://www.californiaspaceauthority.org/images/pdfs/CSA-April2010-StratPlan-Webinars.pdf

• Americans Back Space Exploration, Know Little About Proposed Policy Changes, Everett Group ‘Space Poll’ Finds
• sumreport041610

OSTP Fact Sheet on the President’s April 15th Address in Florida: A Bold Approach for Space Exploration and Discovery

Date Released: Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Source: Office of Science and Technology Policy

On Thursday, April 15, at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the President will outline a bold strategy for human spaceflight that increases the NASA budget by $6 billion over the next five years. His plan represents an ambitious effort to foster the development of path-breaking technologies; increase the number, scope, and pace of manned and unmanned space missions; make human spaceflight safer and more efficient; and help create thousands of jobs.

The President will lay out the goals and strategies in this new vision for NASA, including a sequence of deep-space destinations matched to growing capabilities, progressing step-by-step until we are able to reach Mars. He will provide new information about specific elements of the plan, including proceeding with a scaled- down variant of the Orion space-capsule technology developed in the Constellation program (to support crew escape requirements on the International Space Station

) and setting a decision date for moving from research to development and production of a heavy-lift launch vehicle. In addition, he will speak to the new technologies, new jobs, and new industries this approach will create along the way.

This new strategy means more money for NASA, more jobs for the country, more astronaut time in space, and more investments in innovation. It will result in a longer operating lifetime for the International Space Station, new launch capabilities becoming available sooner, and a fundamentally more ambitious space strategy to take us to an increased number of destinations and to new frontiers in space. By undertaking this strategy, we will no longer rely on our past achievements, and instead embrace a new and bold course of innovation and discovery.

This new plan:

• Advances America’s commitment to human spaceflight and exploration of the solar system, with a bold new vision and timetable for reaching new frontiers deeper in space.
• Increases NASA’s budget by $6 billion over 5 years.
• Leads to more than 2,500 additional jobs in Florida’s Kennedy Space Center area by 2012, as compared to the prior path.
• Begins major work on building a new heavy lift rocket sooner, with a commitment to decide in 2015 on the specific heavy-lift rocket that will take us deeper into space.
• Initiates a vigorous new technology development and test program to increase the capabilities and reduce the cost of future exploration activities.
• Launches a steady stream of precursor robotic exploration missions to scout locations and demonstrate technologies to increase the safety and capability of future human missions, while also providing scientific dividends.
• Restructures Constellation and directs NASA to develop the Orion crew capsule effort in order to provide stand-by emergency escape capabilities for the Space Station – thereby reducing our reliance on foreign providers.
• Establishes the technological foundation for future crew spacecraft needed for missions beyond low Earth orbit.
• Increases the number of astronaut days in space by 3,500 over the next decade, extends the life of the International Space Station, likely beyond 2020, and enables the launching of astronauts on new vehicles from the Kennedy Space Center 1- 2 years sooner.
• Jumpstarts a new commercial space transportation industry to provide safe and efficient crew and cargo transportation to the Space Station, projected to create over 10,000 jobs nationally over the next five years.
• Invests in Florida, adding $3 billion more for the Kennedy Space Center to manage – a 60 percent increase.
• Makes strategic investments to develop critical knowledge, technologies, and capabilities to expand long-duration human exploration into deep space in a more efficient and safe manner, thus getting us to more destinations in deep space sooner.
• And puts the space program on a more ambitious trajectory that pushes the frontiers of innovation to propel us on a new journey of innovation and discovery deeper into space.

Specific New Elements of the President’s Plan:

Outlining A Bold New Vision for Reaching New Frontiers in Space: Building on the announcement of a new heavy-lift rocket decision date and the restructuring of Orion, the President will outline a broad vision and timetable for unlocking our ambitions and expanding our frontiers in space, until ultimately we can meet the challenge of sending humans to Mars.

The President’s vision for NASA space exploration enables:

• a set of stepping-stone achievements in space that will take us further and faster into space, allowing us to reach a range of destinations including lunar orbit, Lagrange points, near-Earth asteroids, and the moons of Mars, and eventually Mars itself. This sequence of missions will begin with a set of crewed flights to prove the capabilities required for exploration beyond low Earth orbit. After these initial missions, our long-duration human spaceflight technologies will enable human explorers to conduct the first-ever crewed mission into deep space to an asteroid, thereby achieving an historical first; venture into deep space locations such as the Lagrange points (potential sites of fuel depots that would enable more capable future missions to the Moon, Mars, and other destinations); and then send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to Earth.
• increasing investments in ground-breaking technologies that will allow astronauts to reach space faster and more often, to travel further distances for less cost, and to stay in space for longer periods of time
• systematically tackling the hard problems of space exploration – from protecting our astronauts from radiation to developing advanced in-space propulsion — so that we can push the boundaries not only of where we can go in space but also what we can do there to improve our lives here on Earth

Developing a Heavy Lift Rocket, with a Specific Decision in 2015, to Expand Our Reach in Space:

To demonstrate a concrete timetable and commitment for expanding human exploration further, the President is announcing that, in addition to investing in transformative heavy-lift technologies, he will commit to making a specific decision in 2015 on the development of a new heavy-lift rocket architecture. This new rocket would eventually lift future deep-space spacecraft to enable humans to expand our reach toward Mars and the rest of the Solar System. This new rocket would take advantage of the new technology investments proposed in the budget – primarily a $3.1 billion investment over five years on heavy-lift R&D. This propulsion R&D effort will include development of a U.S. first-stage hydrocarbon engine for potential use in future heavy lift (and other) launch systems, as well as basic research in areas such as new propellants, advanced propulsion materials manufacturing techniques, combustion processes, and engine health monitoring, all of which are expected to shorten the development time for any future heavy-lift rocket. The new rocket also will benefit from the budget’s proposed R&D on other breakthrough technologies in our new strategy for human exploration (such as in- space refueling), which should make possible a more cost-effective and optimized heavy lift capability as part of future exploration architectures. A decision in 2015 means that major work on building a new heavy lift rocket will likely begin two years sooner than under the troubled Constellation program.

Restructuring the Orion Crew Capsule:

Our goal is to take advantage of the best work undertaken in the Constellation program. The President is announcing that NASA will restructure the Orion crew exploration vehicle program to a simpler and more efficient design that will be focused on crew emergency escape from the International Space Station. Under the Constellation program, the Orion crew capsule was intended to house astronauts during their travel to the International Space Station and later missions to the Moon. It also was to be capable of docking at the Space Station for six months and returning crews to the Earth. As part of the President’s new plan for NASA, the development work already performed on this capability will be re-oriented to meet the important safety requirement of providing stand-by emergency escape capabilities for astronauts on the space Station. We will be able to launch this vehicle within the next few years, creating an American crew escape capability that will increase the safety of our crews on the Space Station, reduce our dependence on foreign providers, and simplify requirements for other commercial crew providers. This effort will also help establish a technological foundation for future exploration spacecraft needed for human missions beyond low Earth orbit and will preserve some critical high-tech contractor jobs in Colorado, Texas, and Florida.

The law that  created  NASA, the National Aeronautics  and Space Act of 1958, as amended, gives NASA an often overlooked mission.

NASA’s founding legislation states that we will “seek and  encourage, to the maximum extent possible, the fullest commercial use of space.”

From Remarks by NASA Administrator General Charles Bolden, Washington, D.C. October 20, 2009

• California Space Enterprise: Frequently Asked Questions
• California’s ten key space Assets (according to California Space Authority)
• Not included on the above list is Mojave Air & Spaceport.
• economic-impact-fact-sheet (pdf)