Dave Masten, left, and his crew continue working on the Xaero Rocket in the warehouse of Masten Space Systems at the Mojave Air & Space Port. Masten was on the cover of Aviation Week after winning a million dollar prize for his endeavors in the space field. (Casey Christie/The Californian)
BY STEVEN MAYER
Californian staff writer
MOJAVE AIR & SPACE PORT — Aerospace types love this rural desert location for its clear, dry weather, its sparse population and its comfortable distance from major news outlets.
But Dave Masten, CEO of Masten Space Systems, says there’s another reason his company stays in Mojave.
“The neighbors don’t complain,” Masten says with a grin.
“Even if you’re testing a rocket engine,” he says. “And rocket tests can be very loud.”
Long known as a place where space cowboys and scientist-entrepreneurs could carve out a niche in the specialized world of aviation and aerospace, Mojave Air & Space Port has grown — some might say grown up — in recent years to include ambitious, well-funded companies that are expected to deliver on the promise that the sky is no longer the limit when it comes to private space flight.
Lost in all the talk about Newt Gingrich’s plan to establish a base and then a state on the moon has been the plight of thousands of jobless along Florida’s Space Coast, who are struggling with the end of the space shuttle program.This has been a big issue in the Sunshine State, with the shutdown exacerbating a weak economy struggling to recover from the Great Recession.
While Gingrich’s expansive and aggressive plan — which also includes robust commercial space operations in Earth orbit and a rocket to Mars — promises much employment, the other three candidates were strangely silent on the matter of how to get unemployed aerospace workers back on the job.
The front-runner, Mitt Romney, strongly attacked the Obama Administration’s space policy as being disastrously directionless and Gingrich’s moon plans as being loony, but he provided no specifics on what he would do differently. Instead, he’s going to consult with a bunch of experts and get back to us. Ron Paul and Rick Santorum mainly confined their remarks to describing Gingrich’s moon base as a waste of money in a constrained budgetary environment.
Mitt Romney. (Credit: Gage Skidmore)
Jeff Foust over at Space Politics has interviewed Eric Anderson, the Space Adventures CEO and Commercial Spaceflight Federation chairman who is serving on Mitt Romney’s space advisory board. Anderson and seven other members of the group signed an open letter last week supporting Romney and harshly criticizing the Obama Administration’s space policy.
Anderson says he’s had several one-on-one conversations with the candidate, who has expressed his enthusiasm for private sector human spaceflight development. He also defended Romney’s lack of specific solutions while pointing to the candidate’s business background as evidence of his support of commercial space solutions.
“You must remember, Mitt Romney is a very experienced businessman. People in business of course believe in private industry! They know that if you can find goods and services in the private sector then clearly those would be preferable to the government recreating that capability,” he told Foust.
Washington, D.C. February 2, 2012 (CSF PR): The Commercial Spaceflight Federation welcomes today’s release of the National Research Council report on NASA’s Space Technology Program. The Federation and its member companies are strong advocates for robust funding for the Space Technology Program.
The report found, “It has been years since NASA has had a vigorous, broad-based program in advanced space technology development, and NASA’s technology base is largely depleted,” and that, “a robust space technology base is urgently needed.”
Space Center Houston (Feb. 2, 2012) — The United States Rocket Academy made a surprise announcement at the Space Exploration Educators Conference, which began here today.
“Teachers in Space is now Citizens In Space,” said Edward Wright, chairman of the United States Rocket Academy and project manager of Teachers in Space. “The focus of our program is growing beyond the public school system. We are creating a more inclusive program that will enable teachers, students, museum educators, and others to become citizen scientists and space explorers.”
Armadillo's STIG-A ballute in space. (Credit: Armadillo Aerospace)
ARMADILLO PR — Following detailed analysis of the downlinked telemetry and audio/video recordings from both ground based cameras and a camera that was recovered from the rocket, Armadillo Aerospace has determined that the maximum altitude attained by the STIG-A rocket in the January 28th mission was approximately 82-km MSL (~50 miles).
Credit: Armadillo Aerospace
LOUISVILLE, Colo. (NASA PR) — One of NASA’s industry partners, Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC), recently delivered the primary structure of its first Dream Chaser flight test vehicle to the company’s facility in Louisville, Colo., where it will be assembled and integrated with secondary systems. This is one of 12 milestones to be completed under SNC’s funded Space Act Agreement (SAA) with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP).
“It’s rewarding to see our partner’s ideas and concepts come to fruition,” said CCP Program Manager Ed Mango. “The company’s delivery of its flight structure will allow them to make more strides toward launching NASA astronauts on American vehicles to the International Space Station.”
NASA PR — One of NASA’s industry partners, United Launch Alliance (ULA), successfully completed two milestones that could eventually lead toward the certification of its Atlas V launch vehicle for human spaceflight.
In December, ULA conducted a series of detailed reviews that reflected the culmination of efforts involving technical experts and representatives from NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP).
“ULA gave us an invaluable opportunity to get to know its Atlas V systems and subsystems through our unfunded partnership,” said Commercial Crew Program Manager Ed Mango. “And we are happy to share our knowledge and expectations to keeping our crews safe.”