Sen. Bill Nelson says that NASA has put off of its eggs in one basket by focusing on commercial human space flight providers.
FAA Administrator Bruce Babbitt
Prepared Remarks
13th Annual FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference
Good morning, and thank you, George [Nield].
Sometimes, it’s kind of fun to look way back to those old news reels of the early pilots willing to take a chance on the first steps in aviation. They were the ones who blazed the trail that we still follow today. The commercial space arena has a bit of a different twist: First of all, the grainy news reels are in Hi Def. And the trail that’s being blazed has fresh tracks on it. For commercial space, if you want to see the “early†trailblazers, look around this room right now. You are taking ideas and concepts that are still getting their sea legs and you’re creating an industry that by all accounts has a tremendous future in store.
Photo caption: Flight hardware for the inaugural launch of Falcon 9 rocket undergoing final integration in the hangar at SpaceX’s Cape Canaveral launch site in Florida. Components include: Dragon spacecraft qualification unit (left), second stage with Merlin Vacuum engine (center), first stage with nine Merlin 1C engines (right). (Credit: SpaceX)
SPACEX PRESS RELEASE
Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) announces that all flight hardware for the debut launch of the Falcon 9 vehicle has arrived at the SpaceX launch site, Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40), in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Final delivery included the Falcon 9 second stage, which recently completed testing at SpaceX’s test facility in McGregor, Texas. SpaceX has now initiated full vehicle integration of the 47 meter (154 feet) tall, 3.6 meter (12 feet) diameter rocket, which will include a Dragon spacecraft qualification unit.
Millionaut Richard Garriott (lower left) aboard the International Space Station.
WORLD TRAVEL AWARDS PRESS RELEASE
The dawn of space tourism, the launch of Tripadvisor, online check-in, and jetting off to Dubai for sun and shopping, are among the greatest travel triumphs of the Noughties, according to the World Travel Awards.
Video: Peter Diamandis praises President Obama’s new space policy.
Henry Vanderbilt of the Space Access Society is encouraged by what he is hearing out of Washington these days:
The new White House NASA space exploration policy looks as promising as anything we’ve seen come from those quarters for a long time. Passing responsibility for basic space access to the US commercial sector while refocusing NASA on developing the technology for future deep-space exploration has potential to radically reduce the costs of both basic access and deep exploration, vastly expanding our future exploration and development possibilities.
An ESA video showing the Cupola and Node 3 – the newest additions to the International Space Station.
Technology Review has a Q&A about Obama’s new space policy with Scott Pace, Director of the Space Policy Institute at The George Washington University. He expresses concerns about the cancellation of Constellation, the lack of a long-term goal for NASA, and the difficulties that private space companies will face in stepping in for the space agency. An excerpt:
In Alabama, a counterattack is being organized to save the Ares program from being cut by the Obama Administration.
SPACE IGT PRESS RELEASE
Today, the Space Innovation and Growth Team (Space IGT), a joint collaboration between industry, Government, and academia, set out a 20 year vision for the UK to grow its share of the quickly expanding global space market from 6% to 10%. The majority of investment required for what will be a six-fold increase in the size of the UK’s space sector will come from industry, but Government must also play a full part in this by doubling its spend on space.
A Russian Soyuz spacecraft in orbit
Here’s one reason to hope that the U.S. can quickly develop commercial alternatives to Earth orbit:
Russia, which is set to hold a monopoly on flights to the international space station (ISS), wants to charge more for rides on its Soyuz rocket, the space agency head said Tuesday.
Aviation Week has the latest on repercussions of NASA’s proposed scuttling of the Ares program:
The Pentagon is participating in an interagency integrated team convened to explore how best to sustain the rocket motor industrial base — a mandate made all the more urgent given NASA’s planned cancellation of the Constellation program, according to Brett Lambert, the Defense Dept.’s industrial policy director.