Hey everyone. The ISPCS was finished just after 5 p.m. MT. A well organized conference with some excellent presentations, most notably a great keynote speech this morning by NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver. And more importantly, a lot of time for networking, which is probably more important than the sessions. I did most of my notes for Thursday via my Twitter account @spacecom . There are some additional posts here […]
Bigelow Aerospace Vice President Jay Ingham explains the company’s space station.
Spaceport Sweden’s Johanna Bergstrom-Roos talks about space tourism from Kiruna.
I sat at a table at lunch with Diana Cashman-Howard, a Triple A travel agent from here in Las Cruces. She has been attending the symposium and talking to the commercial space companies about selling tickets to space via Triple A. It sounds like a very cool idea. Large network, lots of members, advertising channels, and great credibility as an organization.
ISPCS Session:
Crew Transportation Systems: The Game Changer in Human Spaceflight
Brett Alexander – President, Commercial Spaceflight Federation
Mark Sirangelo – Corporate Vice President and Chairman, Sierra Nevada Corporation and Chairman, Commercial Spaceflight Federation
Keith Reiley – Program Manager, Commercial Crew Development, The Boeing Company
Ken Bowersox – Vice President of Astronaut Safety and Mission Assurance, SpaceX
Kenneth Reightler – Vice President, NASA Program Integration, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company
Robert Bigelow – Owner and Founder, Bigelow Aerospace
SIERRA NEVADA CORPORATION PRESS RELEASE
SNC fires hybrid rocket motor and begins production on Dream Chaser Vehicle
The Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) Space Systems Group announces the successful completion of two critical milestones for NASA’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) Program. On September 21, 2010, SNC completed three successful test firings of a single hybrid rocket motor in one day. SNC’s newly opened rocket test facility in San Diego County, California, hosted NASA personnel for a rocket motor manufacturing review as well as the motor firings, including one firing under vacuum ignition conditions. The tests, which simulated a complete nominal mission profile, demonstrated the multiple restart capability of SNC’s proprietary hybrid rocket motor. This same hybrid rocket will be used as the main propulsion system on the Dream Chaser during the orbital operations.
[Editor’s Note: Sierra Nevada is the main contractor for Scaled Composites’ RocketMotorTwo, which will power SpaceShipTwo on suborbital flights. Both vehicles are using the same propulsion system. This probably explains why Scaled Composite and Virgin Galactic officials are predicting powered test flights of SpaceShipTwo in 2011.]
International Space Station
NASA PRESS RELEASE
The International Space Station Multilateral Coordination Board (MCB) has approved a docking system standard. The international standard will provide guidelines for a common interface to link future spacecraft ranging from crewed to autonomous vehicles and from low-Earth orbit to deep-space exploration missions. The interface definition document is available at:
ISPCS Panel: The Path Forward from DC-X/XA
Bill Gaubatz — President, SpaceAvailable
Jess Sponable — Technical Advisor Air Vehicles Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory
Frederick Bachtel — Director of Strategic Planning & Initiatives, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne
David Masten — President and CEO, Masten Space Systems
Nino Polizzi — Vice President, Universal Space Network
James Ball — Senior Manager Flight Engineering, The Boeing Company
Yoshifumi Inatani — Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
Neil Milburn — Vice President Program Management, Armadillo Aerospace
ASTROBOTIC PRESS RELEASE
NASA has selected Astrobotic Technology and Carnegie Mellon University to develop a prototype robot for mining water and methane ices at the Moon’s poles. These volatiles can refuel astronauts’ spacecraft for their return trip to Earth, halving the cost of human Moon expeditions.
ISPCS
“Establishing the Commercial Space Market: Matching Business Strategy with Funding Sources”
Lee Rand — Managing Partner, Sun Mountain Capital
Grant Anderson — VP of Engineering, Paragon Space Development Corporation
Mark Sirangelo — Corporate VP and Chairman, Sierra Nevada Corporation; Chairman, Commercial Spaceflight Federation
Tim Pickens — Commercial Space Advisor; Chief Propulsion Engineer, Dynetics
Robert Bigelow — Owner and Founder, Bigelow Aerospace
A Boeing CST-100 crew module docks at a Bigelow Aerospace space station. (Credit: Boeing)
Robert Bigelow – Bigelow Aerospace
— experience as a general contractor with hotels
— small company 110-115 people on staff
— takes a general contractor approach to the space community
Robert Bigelow (right) stands before a model of his private space station. (Photo: Douglas Messier)
My colleague Leonard David reports the identities of the six nations that want to lease space aboard Bigelow Aerospace’s inflatable space stations:
The deals, in the form of memorandums of understanding, involve Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden, Australia and the United Kingdom.