EADS NA PR — ARLINGTON, VA– (April 7, 2011) – EADS North America today announced that it has further integrated and expanded the company’s Space and related product activities in the U.S., supporting government agencies, private sector customers and academia. The line of business (LOB) will be led by John Schumacher, who will serve as Vice President, Space line of business.

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This isn’t a very good impression of Richard Branson, but the sketch is funny.

Russia looks to grab half of world space launch market RIA Novosti Russia needs to increase its presence on the global space market and increase its share of launches from 40% to 50%, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Thursday. “Our country presently provides up to 40% of all space launches in the world. I believe it is well within our power to increase this share by another 5% or […]

NASA PR — Johnson Space Center’s Advanced Planning Office, in conjunction with the JSC Space Life Sciences Directorate, for the fourth straight year is supporting the Rice Business Plan Competition by funding awards totaling $45,000.

The JSC Game Changer Commercial Space Innovation Award will be a prize of $25,000, and the Earth/Space Life Science Innovation Award will be a prize of $20,000.

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XCOR CEO Jeff Greason

Jeff Greason
XCOR Aerospace

Observations on Status of Commercial Space

• We have not won yet
• What does winning mean? When we have a space transport industry that gets people and materials into space inexpensively enough so we can do something useful up there
• $100 to $500 per pound to LEO
• No suborbital passengers have flown yet
• Big question — is there a large enough market to support commercial orbital transportation — I don’t know — thinks that it will…

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Paul Breed Unreasonable Rocket Small 3D Printed Motors Used Shapeways Stainless process – $350 Numerous problems in production process GPI Prototype – $5,000 Began firing attempts in December First full successful run last week Morris Technology DMLS – $5,000 aluminum flight weight motor Small GPS Integrated IMU Project About 20 flights GPS units tested could not keep lock during 6 Gs forces Some GPS regained lock later – but when […]

Russ Blink and Ben Brockert
Armadillo Aerospace

• Showing AWESOME video of a rocket flight….
• Turned over aircraft to Rocket Racing….flew them up in Tulsa….
• Rocket Racing League is going to have a big announcement soon….
• Tested engine….ran engine 1,000 times to determine reliability….no problems with it…
• Ben: “You know you’re doing a lot of rocket testing when it gets really annoying.”

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Jim Muncy
“Some Relevant Government-Industry Interactions”

Current Lobbying Effort

• Eight years ago, various companies and Dennis Tito started an effort to get a clear regulatory regime for government emerging commercial launch industry
• Many different types of vehicles being developed — some with wings, others not
• Legislation enacted at end of 2004
• Industry is starting to lobby for changes to act and additional Congressional actions so industry can grow

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Osa Fitch The Rocket Test Company Created Rocket Test Company (RTC) Consortium Design Jug SpeedUp Luna City Frontier Astronautics System for conducting incremental testing to rocket technology by combining capabilities: Lunar City has customer need SpeedUp has well characterized rocket Frontier Aeronautics — Test facility in Wyoming at an abandoned Atlas missile silo Design Jug — rapid prototyping capability Got together to do engine testing

Roger Longstaff
Reaction Engines

Current Progress and Plans

• C1 Design completed – engineering drawings and design for vehicle
• Getting an assessment of C1 by ESA and UKSA
• ESA embedded employees with them – got a report back from ESA 150 pages – very technical – overall conclusion that C1 design could be realized with current technology providing the engine development went ahead as planned
• UKSA invited more than 100 technical experts from around the world – ESA, NASA, Roscosmos, JAXA – industrialists, academics and other experts
• Received an assessment from NASA a few months ago – impressed with team and project — caveat: more performance margins needed on SABRE engine design to make project work — Skylon accepts that conclusion
• No word from other space agencies yet
• SABRE 3 Engine demonstration in June
• SABRE — Synergistic Air-breathing Rocket Engine

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The Xaero vehicle during assembly November 2010. (Credit: Masten Space Systems)

Dave Masten
Masten Space Systems

Developing reusable, highly operable suborbital vehicles and technologies — orbital effort lies in the future

Progress — Past Year

• Lost some team members — replaced them and added a focus on business
• First VTVL Relight Flight
• SBIR
• Plume Impingement SBIR
• Scimitar Engine
• Signed agreement with Space Florida (letter of intent)
• Xaero in the air
• Focus on customers

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Rick Tumlinson Texas Space Alliance Consultant for Virginia on how to build up commercial space at Wallops Island Upset that his native state was leading the charge against commercial space — Texas Republican socialists — against govt. spending except where NASA is concerned Formed the citizen-driven Texas Space Alliance to rally the forces in favor of commercial space There are space entrepreneurs in Texas — Elon Musk’s SpaceX testing rockets, […]