by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
A bill now being considered in the Legislature would create a 17-member California Aerospace and Aviation Commission to promote the industries within the state.
“The purpose of the commission is to serve as a central point of contact for businesses engaged in the aerospace and aviation industries and to support the health and competitiveness of these industries in California,” the bill reads.
Senator Jean Fuller (Credit: Jean Fuller)
California State Sen. Jean Fuller (R-Bakersfield) has introduced legislation that would require the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development to establish a space enterprise development program to promote the state’s industry.
Fuller’s measure would likely lead to the establishment of a California Spaceport Authority to oversee the efforts. The bill gives the Governor’s Office the authority to contract with a non-profit group to provide technical assistance and support and to serve as the state’s spaceport authority.
There has not been a state-wide organization to promote its aerospace interests since the non-profit California Space Authority dissolved in June 2011 after it ran out of funds.
June 6 turned out to be D-Day for the California Space Authority. CSA’s board of directors voted unanimously to dissolve the struggling non-profit organization, which promoted the state’s aerospace industry. CSA ceased operations on Friday. Media reports indicate that the decision came after $5 million in federal funding did not come through. In a brief email sent out on Friday, the CSA said: The CSA staff, past and present, have […]
Plans by the California Space Authority to build a space education center in the town of Lompoc are moving forward. CSA originally planned to build the center at Vandenberg Air Force Base, but that effort fell through due to excessive reviews that would be required. The Central Coast Democrat Examiner reports:
Hope for a more fiscally sound future in Lompoc may be found in a space education center. The City Council voted unanimously in favor of signing an agreement to negotiate with the California Space Authority (CSA) for development of the center. A $200 million local project with a potential $2.3 billion economic benefit in its first decade.
Via California Space Authority: California Space Day Sacramento CA will begin on Tuesday, May 24, at 8:30 a.m. in the Hyatt Regency Hotel (1209 L Street), across the street from the State Capitol. Space Day participants will meet privately that day with key state legislators and/or staff members in order to discuss vital issues for California space enterprise. This is an opportunity for space enterprise stakeholders to join with the […]
More than half of the Department of Defense’s $19 billion space budget is spent in California, providing nearly 90,000 high-skilled jobs to the Golden State, the California Space Authority says.
In talking points papers released for CSA’s annual California Space Week Washington DC, the non-profit industry group said that DoD spends $10.6 billion, or 55 percent, of its space budget in the state. CSA officials and aerospace representatives spent three days on Capitol Hill this week lobbying legislators and other officials on behalf of key space priorities.
DoD spends more in California than NASA. CSA says the civilian space agency has $3.6 billion in direct contracts and employs 7,100 people with an annual payroll exceeding $900 million at its three field centers. NASA contributes an additional $14.1 billion in indirect jobs, according to CSA.
The CSA’s talking points memo on DoD spending in California is reproduced after the break.
The California Space Authority, an industry trade group, lobbied this week on behalf of President Barack Obama’s effort to reform restrictive export laws that industry officials are costing Americans jobs and destroying U.S. competitiveness in the lucrative high-tech markets, including satellites.
A P3 Navy aircraft with Hangar One at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California. (Copyright 2008: Douglas Messier)
NASA contributes $3.6 billion in direct contracts and an additional $14.1 billion in in-direct jobs to the Golden State through its three field centers, according to the California Space Authority. The agency directly employs more than 7,100 with an annual payroll in excess of $900 million.
The California Space Authority, a non-profit industry group, has been on Capitol Hill this week lobbying officials on behalf of the Golden State’s space industry, which makes up 22 percent of the global space market. CSA is pursuing a broad agenda that includes requested Congressional actions regarding NASA, DoD, export reform, hosted payloads, satellite procurement, and education.
A summary of CSA’s main lobbying goals, excerpted from the authority’s point papers, is shown after the break.
CSA PR — SANTA MARIA, CALIF. — The Board of Directors for the California Space Authority (CSA), a statewide non-profit organization, has voted to terminate the organization’s pursuit of a long-term lease at Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB). CSA began its pursuit of an Air Force lease for development of the California Space Center on VAFB in February 2004.
The CSA Board of Directors also voted to explore the possibility of moving the California Space Center to a site within the City of Lompoc.
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