Main Article: Space Tourism: Is Obama pro space or spaced out?
Recent developments in suborbital tourism could provide a golden opportunity for America to start down the road of commercial Space Development, is President Elect Obama ready to take advantage of this opportunity?
Poll Results: Meritocracy or Diversity.
Star Trek: In the News.
Yesterday's Interesting Comments: What was the top recommended comment, scroll down to enjoy a brief highlight.
Today's Poll: Space Tourism, how much should President Elect Barack Obama involve the government. None, some, PRIME THE PUMP! So American can lead the world in Space Tourism and create the high tech jobs, America will need, in the 21st Century.
Today was a small watershed moment. In Today's SpaceRef there was an article:
"XCOR Aerospace Announces Ticket Sales for Suborbital Space Flights on December 2nd"
"In a display of the power of competition, American entrepreneurs have broken the government monopoly on space travel, and succeeded in lowering the cost of space access before a single paying participant has taken a flight.
So, even if the overall economy may look down, the market for space tourism is looking up.
On Tuesday, December 2, XCOR Aerospace, builder of the 2-seat Lynx rocket-powered suborbital launch vehicle, is introducing its General Sales Agent for ticket sales and will announce a price that is substantially lower than prices quoted by leading competitors.
XCOR will introduce its new partner, a well-known and established travel entrepreneur with extensive experience in high-end adventure travel, who will outline the total Lynx flight experience, from initial screening, to training, and finally, the flight itself.
The first commercial Lynx suborbital space flight participant will also attend the conference, a European adventurer who aims to be the first person from his country to make a suborbital flight."
Xcor Aerospace is banking it's Space Tourism on the Lynx.
"The Lynx will offer affordable access to space for individuals, researchers and educators," said XCOR CEO Jeff Greason. "Future versions of Lynx will offer ever-improving capabilities for scientific and engineering research and commercial applications.
The spaceship, roughly the size of a small private airplane, will first take off in 2010 and will be capable of flying several times each day.
"We have designed this vehicle to operate much like a commercial aircraft. Its liquid fuel engines will provide the enhanced safety, durability, reliability and maintainability that keep operating costs low," Greason said. "These engines will also minimize the impact of these flights on the environment," Greason added. "They are fully reusable, burn cleanly, and release fewer particulates than solid fuel or hybrid rocket motors."
"Lynx will be the ‘Greatest Ride Off Earth,’" said XCOR test pilot, former pilot astronaut and Space Shuttle commander, Col. Rick Searfoss (USAF-Ret.). "The acceleration, the weightlessness, and the view will provide you with an experience that is out of this world. And the best part of it all is that you’ll ride right up front, like a co-pilot, instead of in back, like cargo."
XCOR has nine years’ experience developing reliable, reusable and non-toxic rocket propulsion systems and has already built and flown two different rocket-powered vehicles."
In a new emerging market, the first in can either dominate the industry or provide a blue print on how to duplicate their business model and soon the original company is bought out. Internet search engines are an example, almost all the first ones are gone and GOOGLE dominates the market.
Space Tourism To Soar, Official Says
"What's new is people buying tickets," Nield said Oct. 14 at a Washington discussion organized by the Space Foundation. "We haven't had that before. We haven't had the public access. It's going to be expensive to start ... but that's only because people are willing to pay that much. When it starts getting down to the price of an SUV, the number of people who want to do it is going to go up too." By Frank Morring, Jr./Aerospace Daily & Defense Report
The Lyxn main competition will be:
The 800 Pound Gorilla: Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galatic
Why a watershed moment? Finally there is some other players in the market.
In 2004, Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites, with 25 million in funding from Paul Allen, won the Ansari X Prize. Flying an air launched space place, Space Ship One Scaled Composites and test pilot Brian Binnie was able to reach 112.0 km. A prize that brought back memories of the Spirit of St. Louis and the Orteig Prize. After winning this prize, Burt Rutan and Sir Richard Branson formed The Spaceship Company to build the new commercial version, Model 339 SpaceShipTwo (SS2)
Virgin Galatic will be the cornerstone and anchor business to the first American commercial space port. "Spaceport America" Located in the state of New Mexico, where recently named Secretary of Commerce, Bill Richardson, was Governor. Recently the spaceport needed more funding and wanted to bring another county in and slightly raise their taxes. The vote failed so I imagine, for giving his support so early to Obama, some payback will probably be in the making for Richardson, who is highly pro space, and will manage to get some funding steered to the new space port.
This is the first real competitor for Virgin Galatic. They have beem pretty much alone until the Lynx. There are a couple other players in the sub orbital space tourism market. Armadillo Aerospace Who recently won Luner Lander Challenge. Founder of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos has also entered the market with his company Blue Origin and the New Shepard, a single state to sub orbit vehicle.
In a recent piece published in the Space Review, planetary scientist and ex NASA Associate Administrator, Alan Stern wrote:
"The new administration could accomplish this by combining NASA’s space exploration portfolio with new and innovative initiatives that address hazards to society, make new applications of space, and foster new industries.
Such new initiatives should include dramatically amplifying our capability to monitor the changing Earth in every form, from climate change to land use to the mitigation of natural disasters. Such an effort should also accelerate much needed innovation in aircraft and airspace system technologies that would save fuel, save travelers time, and regain American leadership in the commercial aerospace sector. And it should take greater responsibility for mitigating the potential hazards associated with solar storms and asteroid impacts.
So, too, a more relevant NASA should be charged to ignite the entrepreneurial human suborbital and orbital spaceflight industry. This nascent commercial enterprise promises to revolutionize how humans use spaceflight and how spaceflight benefits the private sector economy as fundamentally as the advent of satellites affected the communications industry.
Such a retooled NASA could also serve an educational purpose—inspiring a new army of students and young workers to careers in technology fields, further fueling America’s economy into the 2020s, ’30s, and ’40s.
Such a newly relevant and responsive space effort need not add to the federal government’s financial burden. In fact, it could be financed entirely from the savings produced by a strong emphasis on cost overrun control in the nation’s current civil space budget—estimated to be several billion dollars per year."
Ferris Valyn did a recent article exploring some of Alan Stern's positions and opinions.
Stern certainly SOUNDS pro commercial space, but is that just sensing the direction the wind is blowing and mearly looking for a new job? Possibly the new NASA Administrator, replacing Dr. Griffin.
This is a golden opportunity for President Elect Obama to put America in the fore front of Space Tourism AND all the new high paying tech jobs that come with it.
Will Obama embrace New Space and a pro space commercialization of suborbital and orbital space launches, or will he "space out" this opportunity for America to capture the lead in a new global emerging market. If we do not act, Russia, China or India will.
"If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man, in his quest for knowledge and progress, is determined and cannot be deterred. The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in this race for space." - President John F. Kennedy
More Nations then ever have programs being created for space and it's development. As President Kennedy and Progressive Democrats of that day understood, America can not lead from behind, it had to be out front. Just because America loses it's direction on the importance of space, that doesn't mean the rest of the world has.
According the the six page Space Policy paper released by the Obama Campaign during the primaries:
"Using the Private Sector: Obama will stimulate efforts within the private sector to develop and demonstrate spaceflight capabilities. NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services is a good model of government/industry collaboration." - Obamanauts
I hope He is serious about change for American Space Development.
ADVANCING THE FRONTIERS OF SPACE EXPLORATION President Elect Barack Obama's current Space Policy Positions.
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Chinese Space Officials Meeting with NASA Today
"NASA is hosting Earth and space science working group meetings with officials from the China National Space Administration (CNSA) in Washington, D.C., SPACE.com has learned.
The talks, today and tomorrow, are a follow- up to NASA's most recent meetings with CNSA representatives held June 30 to July 1in Beijing. That meeting brought together CNSA officials and other interested Chinese agencies with a NASA delegation made up of representatives from the space agency's Office of External Relations and the Science Mission Directorate.
On that occasion, the discussions represented the first joint meeting of the Earth and space science working groups that CNSA proposed to NASA in September 2006, during NASA Chief Mike Griffin's trip to China."
The article continued:
"Meanwhile, China continues to broaden its menu of space activities.
A few days ago, China lofted another of its remote sensing spacecraft in the Yaogan series. Its mission, according to Chinese news agencies, is to carry out land resource surveys, estimate crop yields, as well as assist in disaster prevention and relief efforts.
China is also pressing forward on its human space exploration plans.."
by Leonard David - Space.com's Space Insider Columnist
Poll Results: Meritocracy or Diversity.
Yesterday's Poll reaffirmed the notion most Americans have: That America is basically a meritocracy. "Ruled by Merit", the person who has the best ability, regardless or gender, ethnic background, et cetera, wins the day.
30% of voters in yesterday's poll ( winning option) said: "Yes, start sending Americans to the moon - Only send the BEST people do not worry about diversity."
Those voting for a Moon return crew that should be a diverse group representing a broader spectrum of America, was 12%.
Of the no opinion pro-con space funding, 22% had no opinion on this question but were pro space and wanted to see an increase in funding. Those opposed to new funding for space, 10%.
Star Trek: In the News,
Star Trek looks a sure bet
"IT'S likely to be one of next year's biggest films, and the Herald Sun can reveal Star Trek XI looks set to be a smash hit with Trekkies as well new fans.
A sneak preview of the sci-fi flick yesterday showed that after 42 years Star Trek is just as adventurous, funny, sexy and scary as director J.J. Abrams said he hoped it would be." - IT'S likely to be one of next year's biggest films, and the Herald Sun can reveal Star Trek XI looks set to be a smash hit with Trekkies as well new fans." - Neala Johnson
Yesterday's Interesting Comments:
Yesterday's top recommended comment with sixteen "tip of the hats" was Arken's:
"If Obama decides that returning to the Moon is a goal of his administration, I hope he sends the most qualified people. I don't care what color their skin happens to be."
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Often times people opposed to space spending in general and manned space flight in particular phrase statements into all or nothing, either or statements. In responding to one Bill White wrote:
"It is hardly an "either / or" proposition. Anyway, for the record, I strongly support human space exploration and I believe that permanent settlement "out there" must be our long term objective. I also freely admit that my motivations and view points have significant aspirational components.
Others (such as yourself) may differ. Which is entirely OK since Federalist Paper #1 foresaw such disagreements and Congress exists as a venue to resolve those differences.
However, as a matter of practical politics, if the Democratic Party guts America's human spaceflight program the Republicans will use that to pummel our party, both nationally and in key NASA states.
Even if you must hold your nose, supporting a human spaceflight program that is well managed simply shall help maintain power those who actually believe in the human causation of global warming."
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"I'm totally sick of people who are so short sighted that they miss the very real economic advantages of scientific research. WHen we bomb Iraq we throw money in a hole. When we do scientific research here, we give graduate students scholarships and pay qualified Americans--far better than paying them unemployment.
Plus, we do not know the practical advantages of pure research until we do it. When John McCain made fun of bear genetics studies, he had no idea about the applications to genetic diseases in isolated Appalachian communities. When he ranted about the million dollar "projector" he missed the way a planetarium system educated the entire population (or perhaps, feared an educated population).
Your kitchen Corning Ware came from the space program, as have many other products that have made us a richer nation. The solution to unemployment and the failing economy is scientific research."
MrMichaelMT
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Today's Poll: