Funding : Reports
Endorsements Coming In for Obama's Space Plan
"President Obama’s new plan for NASA, released February 1st, is endorsed by bipartisan groups representing governors, former legislators, astronauts, and former NASA senior managers and a half dozen editorial boards." See the Commercial Space Federation's links to all and the good news for commercial space.
Commercial Human Space Travel Provides New Research Opportunities
Katharine Sanderson's Special Report in Nature describes how commercial spaceflight can open doors for lower-cost, more frequent, flexible access to space for researchers (subscript or fee req'd). See free editorial, "Divide and Conquer", same issue, same topic.
New Course for Space Exploration Promotes Private Firms | WSJ
The Obama administration appears to be charting a new course for U.S. space exploration by promoting use of private companies to transport astronauts and ramping up international cooperation.
Review of Human Spaceflight Plans Committee - Final Report | NASA
Here's the options agenda to support heated discussions over the next few days and weeks by NASA and the Obama administration. Commercial space seems to be baselined.
NASA Chief Onboard with Commercial Spaceflight, Suborbital Science & Innovation Prizes
Bolden says NASA must leverage the power and innovation of American industry and the American entrepreneur as it is tasked to do.
Lunar Science: Window to the Past and Stepping Stone to the Future | NLSI
This recent white paper sent to the Augustine Panel by NASA describes how "the NLSI will bring together scientists and engineers from the academic community and NASA Centers to advance lunar science, support both human and robotic missions to the Moon, train the next generation of lunar scientists and communicate the excitement of this scientific exploration to the public." The Google Lunar X-prize announced in Sept '07 has galvanized the emerging entrepreneurial space community. Nineteen international teams are registered and this will inevitably spur development of a commercial lunar industry. NASA is having policy discussions focused on allowing NASA to buy services including payload transport to the Moon from these companies once reliable capabilities are demonstrated. NLSI is pursuing options to contribute small science payloads to private missions to the Moon". Stay tuned.
The Commercial Spaceflight Federation's (CSF) Industry Overview Report
This report, developed by the Tauri Group based on CSF member data, shows recent rapid market growth.
Policy Input to White House Panel on Human Spaceflight | Commercial Spaceflight Federation
“In less than 18 months, when the space shuttle is planned for retirement, the United States will become solely dependent on Russia to send our astronauts to the Space Station,” said Bretton Alexander, President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. "By leveraging the private sector, America can maximize our utilization of the Space Station and ensure that NASA has more resources available for robust exploration of the Moon and beyond.” This press release includes a pdf link to the "white paper" submitted to the Panel (Augustine Committee for Review of U.S. Space Flight Plans).
Notes on "Innovations in Orbit: An Exploration of Commercial Crew & Cargo Transportation"
These notes were taken by Clark Lindsey of HobbySpace.Com in collaboration with Ken Davidian, FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation. Davidian was one of the panel participants in this important AIAA-sponsored event in Washington, DC, June 18, 2009. The meeting was held at Hyatt Regency Washington, Capitol Hill and included commercial space industry and government panels followed by a Q&A session.
Small Business Innovative Research/Technology Transfer Programs & Aerospace
Blakey represents the Aerospace Industries Assn. consisting of about 300 aerospace manufacturing companies and thousands of small business subcontractor businesses who supply them with subsystem parts. Together they represent about 2 million well-paying jobs and the industry sector provides a positive trade balance of $57B, the largest of any U.S. manufacturing sector. The Federal Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs are highly important to these small businesses in developing next-generation innovations for this sector. SBIR grants provide R&D funds to 38 percent of all scientists and engineers in the U.S. and help produce 7 patents/day. Small businesses receive only 4.3% of Federal R&D funds and is critical to their ongoing innovation. In this testimony the AIA recommends program reauthorization with some suggested improvements that can positively impact the aerospace sector and U.S. competitiveness.