Partnerships: 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.
"The Growth of Global Space Capabilities"
Pace's testimony was given to the House Committee on Science & Technology on Nov 18, 2009. A summary statement included this paragraph.
" The U.S. is facing a generational transition away from the period represented by the Space Shuttle that is just as profound as the transition from Apollo was. We are facing a transition not just of hardware and contracts, but also of leadership and values. NASA will be cooperating more with commercial and international partners than ever before. The nation will need to compete and cooperate in space as never before. The transition is upon us at home and abroad, just as we see that others are not delaying their entries into space. The question before us is simple. What will this nation do?"
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.
Sustainable Utilization of the ISS Beyond 2015 | IAC 2009
"This International Astronautical Congress (IAC) session summary addresses the significant and unique value of the International Space Station (ISS), with growing potential to deliver future benefits beyond 2015, in areas such as: biotechnology and life sciences; Earth imaging; engineering research and technology; materials science; and various commercial applications. Presenters also considered how enhanced management of operations costs can maximize ISS productivity."
Chairs: Paul Eckert, Boeing (Human Space Endeavours Symposium); Helmut Luttman, EADS Astrium (Space Operations Symposium)
Rapporteur: Rachid Amekrane, EADS Astrium (Human Space Endeavours Symposium)
Global Space Exploration 2025: Europe's Propsectives for Partnerships
“Space exploration is an emblematic domain of space activities where traditionally only established space powers have been active. However, new actors are demonstrating great interest in it, principally for international prestige reasons, with an increasing number making ambitious plans. Complementing national endeavours, international cooperation has become a central element of most countries’ exploration strategy, since the costs of doing it alone are so great. Europe’s development into a fully fledged actor in space exploration requires a shared assessment of the future challenges, threats and opportunities with which it will be confronted in order to derive the best options for cooperation to lead and anticipate rather than follow and endure change.”
NASA ARC Wins Funding for Innovative Technology Partnerships
“NASA’s Vision for Space Exploration calls for robots and humans to return to the moon, Mars and beyond. And NASA Ames’ innovative partnerships with industry and academia will ensure cost-effective development of the breakthrough technologies needed. Responding to a call from the NASA Headquarters’ Innovative Partnerships Program (IPP), Ames and its collaborators recently submitted eight proposals for seed fund consideration. On the basis of technical merit, feasibility and leveraging of internal and external resources, Ames’ proposals were selected for award in four technically diverse areas encompassing the Science, Exploration Systems, Space Operations and Aeronautics mission directorates.” These projects are all public-private partnerships between government (NASA), academia and industry.
Taking Wing: Liftoff for public space travel
“How do you form a business around a hoped-for hunger by the public to fly to the edge of space?” David provides an insider’s view of how Virgin Galactic has teamed with Scaled Composites to make commercial spaceflight a viable business. A Feb ’09 update on this steadily progessing business endeavor.
Microgravity Research Competition
The Heinlein Prize Trust announces the Microgravity Research Competition (with option for commercial partners) to reward innovation in the use of microgravity to advance biotech, nanotech, combustion, metallurgy, and other fields. Sponsored by the Trust and Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX), the competition offers a $25,000 prize and transportation to and from Low Earth Orbit for the winning experiment aboard a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft.