by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
Of the six launches known to be scheduled to close out August, there’s only one – Artemis I — that truly matters in any real sense. The others will be duly recorded but little remembered in what could be the busiest launch year in human history.
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Translated from French by Google Translate
PARIS (CNES PR) — The advent of NewSpace has profoundly upset the space industry and prompted traditional players to review their strategies in the face of multiple initiatives from new private players over the past twenty years. This sector, now more accessible, opens up a considerable number of opportunities and French space players must face up to rapidly changing challenges in order to remain in the international race.
A collective of space players, fully convinced of the need to accelerate the transformation of the ecosystem – 3i3s Europa, Alliance NewSpace France, ASTech Paris Region, CNES, ESA, Eutelsat, Geodesic, GIFAS, ISAE SUPAERO, NewSpace Club, Paris-Saclay Hardware Accelerator, SAFE, Toulouse Capitole University (Sirius Chair) – has therefore decided to organize the first NewSpace Meetings, on July 7 and 8, 2022 at Station F, Paris. It is in this context that a major public consultation has been launched for all interested natural or legal persons.
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PARIS (ESA PR) — Kicking off with a bold flourish, Φ-week 2021 promises to bring space even closer to the forefront of addressing society’s biggest challenges, namely issues associated with the climate crisis, while boosting the economy through transformative New Space, artificial intelligence, and quantum and cognitive computing.
ESA’s Φ-week is now in its fourth edition, and each year this forward-looking event is increasingly relevant to society, business and the economy.
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by Josef Aschbacher
Director General
European Space Agency
There is no need to point out the importance of commercialisation in the space sector. It has been implemented and visibly demonstrated in all corners of the world. The commercialisation of space has entered a new dimension with the digital sector massively investing in the space sector, giving it the attention, credibility, funding and even celebrity the American space industry needed to grow colossally and at a very quick pace. Its success set off a ripple effect overseas, encouraging similar investments in space industries in Japan, China, India, UAE, to name a few. Around the globe, countries have been further encouraged to heavily invest in space after being woken up to the great economic, societal and strategic benefit potential the sector promises.
Certainly, the US has led the way more than a decade ago, but today basically every country puts a huge emphasis on putting the commercial sector into the driving seat for “NewSpace” projects, however you may wish to define NewSpace.
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by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
Democratization has a set of fundamental elements to it. It involves giving the people the power to choose their leaders. It means making a political system accountable to those people. It’s creating a government and culture that respect the freedoms laid out in the First Amendment: speech, assembly, religion, press and the right to peacefully petition the government for change. It’s not just changing how the government operates, but how the society functions.
The last thing I ever expected democratization to include are joy rides into space by millionaires and billionaires. But, that’s what NewSpace spinmeisters would have us believe as space tourism returns this year after a 12-year hiatus. They really should stop.
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The space shuttle Challenger explodes. (Credit: NASA)
“There was ice on the ship,” I said quietly to no one in particular.
I was standing in the hallway at work with some co-workers, watching the space shuttle Challenger explode over and over again on a television in one of the offices.
Allison Odyssey (Credit: Space Florida)
EXPLORATION PARK, Fla., February 25, 2014 (Space Florida PR) – Space Florida is pleased to name Allison Odyssey as Vice President of NewSpace Market Development. In this role, Odyssey is responsible for creating, directing, and managing Space Florida’s business partnerships with the NewSpace industry, while leveraging and strengthening a positive business climate for the commercial space markets to grow in Florida. Odyssey has been with Space Florida for seven years, most recently as Senior Program Director.
Today the NewSpace industry is composed of hundreds of small and large businesses and according to industry analysts, is expected to reach 1,000 companies worldwide by 2016. NewSpace is characterized by lean companies that are backed by private investment and use space applications to serve a growing base of commercial customers. By evaluating the business needs of these companies from a technical and financial standpoint, Odyssey is responsible for shaping customized solutions, and providing support and investment in the areas that will have the largest impact and best position them for growth and success.
Video Caption: We follow certain entrepreneurs, public officials, and private citizens that are actively shaping a new kind of space race, and in the process, redefining what it means to explore the cosmos. This pilot episode of the new monthly web series Private Space, features an interview with California State Sen. Steve Knight, the lead author of California’s Space Flight Liability and Immunity Act. Learn more about the series on […]
Michael Simpson
ISPCS Closing Remarks
Michael Simpson
Executive Director, Secure World Foundation
In closing keynote, Michael Simpson says NewSpace industry has matured over last 8 years, more willing to work with gov’t and others. (Jeff Foust @jeff_foust)
SIMPSON: Don’t restrict innovation to engineering. (Alan Ladwig @SpaceArtAl )
Simpson: Don’t confine innovation to engineering. Great ideas are in business, policy, and other fields. (Suzi Gordon @suzigordon)
Simpson: Any place worth getting to in space is going to come faster if we make use of synergies (ISPCS @ISPCS)
NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver talks during a press conference with Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser spacecraft in the background on Saturday, Feb. 5, 2011, at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser spacecraft is under development with support from NASA’s Commercial Crew Development Program to provide crew transportation to and from low Earth orbit. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
Aviation Week takes a closer look at Deputy Administrator Lori Garver’s impending Sept. 6 departure from NASA. Frank Morring, Jr. notes that Garver has been the major driver behind the agency’s controversial push for commercial space activities as well as the plan to capture an asteroid and have astronauts visit it. He also notes the following:
Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot, the agency’s No. 3 manager and top-ranking civil servant, is a likely possibility to fill Garver’s post on an acting basis until the White House can nominate another political appointee….
Garver’s departure will come on the heels of Elizabeth Robinson, the agency’s chief financial officer, who has been named under secretary of energy. Robinson and Garver were staunch allies in the often-heated management policy debates that pitted them against more traditional NASA managers, including Administrator Charles Bolden.
The announcement of Garver’s departure has already caused consternation among her supporters in the NewSpace community, who are losing their highest ranked advocate at the space agency at a critical time when Congress and the White House are at loggerheads over the space agency’s funding and direction.
