Hailing President Obama’s new plan for NASA, Governor Bill Richardson (D-New Mexico) published an op-ed today praising the President’s plan for “creating thousands of new high-tech jobs and helping America retain its leadership role in science and technology.”

In a piece titled “Commercial Spaceflight: Creating 21st Century Jobs” in the Huffington Post, Governor Richardson states, “I am pleased that President Obama and NASA chief Charlie Bolden have decided to promote commercial spaceflight — let’s get to work building this growing industry! The Wright Brothers would be proud.” The article can be found at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gov-bill-richardson/commercial-spaceflight-cr_b_473509.html

In the op-ed, Richardson also states, “The excitement of commercial spaceflight is already inspiring kids to pursue careers in science and technology, something our nation desperately needs to remain competitive with emerging powers like China.”

“In New Mexico, our support for commercial spaceflight is already reaping benefits,” adds Richardson. “About 500 New Mexicans are now on the job, creating the first commercial spaceport in the world. Another 300 new jobs are expected this year. The spaceport is fulfilling its promise of inspiring young people to study math and science and developing our statewide economy. … The demand is there, and New Mexico will get its return on investment. Americans will get their return on investment, too.”

Image credit: State of New Mexico

The entrepreneurial space industry has been big supporters—and beneficiaries—of prizes, from the Ansari X PRIZE and the Google Lunar X PRIZE to NASA’s Centennial Challenges prize program. Now it looks the latter is going to get a lot more robust. After several years of not getting any funding, Centennial Challenges got $4 million in NASA fiscal year 2010 budget. And in detailed budget documents released yesterday, Centennial Challenges, now part of the Space Technology portion of the budget would get $10 million a year in fiscal years 2011 through 2015. Here’s how NASA describes it will use the money, if Congress goes along with the budget request:

The $10 million per year FY 2011 request for Centennial Challenges will allow NASA to pursue new and more ambitious prize competitions. Topics for future challenges that are under consideration include revolutionary energy storage systems, solar and other renewable energy technologies, laser communications, demonstrating near-Earth object survey and deflection strategies, innovative approaches to improving the safety and efficiency of aviation systems including Next Generation Aeronautics efforts, closed-loop life support and other resource recycling techniques, and low-cost access to space. Annual funding for Centennial Challenges allows new prizes to be announced, addressing additional technology challenges that can benefit from the innovation of the Citizen inventor.

In addition, NASA is planning a one-day technical symposium this Thursday featuring winners of several of the recent Centennial Challenges. That will be followed Friday by a recognition ceremony for the winners, featuring NASA administrator Charles Bolden. There’s also talk that NASA will use the event to announce one or more new prizes.

Besides the developments by several vehicle operators, there have been a number of other announcements by various organizations at the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference. The biggest, in the plenary speech by NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver, is that NASA has requested $15 million for the Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research (CRuSR) program in its FY11 budget. That’s a major increase over the $2.5 million the program is getting in the current fiscal year, split among the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate (ESMD), Science Mission Directorate (SMD), and the Innovative Partnerships Program (IPP). The $15 million in the FY11 budget proposal would come entirely from IPP. In addition, Garver said the five-year budget plan funds CRuSR at the same level throughout the period (although that is subject to change from year to year.)

Other organizations are putting up money for suborbital research as well. The Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) announced it’s allocating $1 million to commercial suborbital research efforts, specifically to “build and fly experiments with SwRI payload specialists on next-generation suborbital vehicles.” This effort is led by Alan Stern, who has been one of the leading proponents of “research and education market” (REM) uses of commercial suborbital vehicles.

The Commercial Spaceflight Federation, meanwhile, is expanding its membership to include academic affiliates. Purdue University, Johns Hopkins University, Princeton University, and George Mason University are the initial four institutions affiliating themselves with the CSF, a NewSpace industry organization.

In yesterday’s sessions at the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference in Boulder, Colorado, four major developers of suborbital vehicles presented updates on their efforts. Here’s a summary of what they revealed:

Virgin Galactic: Stephen Attenborough provided considerable details about their plans to flight test SpaceShipTwo (SS2). Ground testing will continue until the end of this quarter, he said. The first captive-carry flight, with WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) carrying SS2 aloft but not releasing it, should take place by the end of this quarter. The second quarter of 2010 will be for captive-carry tests flights. The first drop test will be some time in the third quarter. That initial drop test, he said, “will be a pretty interesting moment for all of us on the ground, and a pretty interesting moment for the pilot as well.”

Attenborough said he hoped first powered test flight of SS2 would take place by the end of this year. There would be “a lot” of powered test flights in 2011, he said. His “best case” scenario for beginning commercial operations would be the end of 2011 or the beginning of 2012, adding it would be entirely depending on the progress made during the test flights. “We can’t cut corners” on the test program, he noted.

XCOR Aerospace: Jeff Greason noted that development of the prototype Lynx Mark 1 was underway, which will be followed “as quickly as possible” (9-18 months, according to his slides) by the more capable Mark 2. Engine development, normally a limiting factor in the development of a launch system, isn’t a concern. “The engines are ahead of the airframe,” he said. The first test flights of the Mk 1 prototype are planned for the first half of next year.

Masten Space Systems: Fresh off its wins in the Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge last fall, Masten is pressing ahead with plans for a couple of different vehicles in the coming year, said Michael Mealling. First up, in the next couple of months, will be “Xoie v2.0″, an updated version of the XA-0.1E that won first place in Level Two of the LLC, now equipped with an aeroshell and the ability to do an engine relight; it will be able to fly up to about 36 kilometers. XA-0.1G, or “Xogdor”, will be built by October or November, will pick up where Xoie left off, flying eventually up to 100 kilometers using a new 3000-lbf engine under development. By 2011 Masten plans to fly commercial missions, and is even looking at the possibility of getting into the nanosat launch market through the use of an expendable second stage.

Blue Origin: Gary Lai didn’t make any great new revelations about the secretive company’s plans in a presentation, which he said was the first time a Blue Origin employee had presented any details at a conference. “If we’re famous for anything it’s famous for keeping quiet,” he said. The reason for that, he said, “is that we have a culture within the company to talk publicly only about results, and not about plans,” an approach similar to Burt Rutan.

While he didn’t provide much in the way of specifics, and no hints about schedule, he did reveal a few things. He briefly discussed Goddard, the gumdrop-shaped prototype of the New Shepard propulsion module that the company first flew in November 2006. “One of the main reasons for flying Goddard was to learn how to take a vertical-landing vehicle that uses the same propellants that our operational vehicle uses and learn how to fly that and turn it around in a very rapid manner,” he said. “Most of our lessons learned were in the operational area.”

However, he cautioned about reading too much into Goddard. “That is not necessarily what the operational New Shepard vehicle looks like,” he said.

Washington, D.C. – The Commercial Spaceflight Federation enthusiastically welcomes NASA’s announcement today that NASA will fund dozens of science and education payloads to fly on commercial suborbital vehicles built by companies including Armadillo Aerospace, Blue Origin, Masten Space Systems, Virgin Galactic, and XCOR Aerospace.  At the first annual Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference, NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver announced in her keynote speech today that President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2011 budget request for NASA commits $75 million in funding over five years for the new Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research program (CRuSR). 

“We are thrilled to see NASA recognizing the enormous potential of new commercial vehicles for science, research, and education,” said Mark Sirangelo, Chairman of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.  “NASA Deputy Administrator Garver’s announcement today means that hundreds of scientists, educators, and students will be able to fly payloads on these new commercial vehicles.”

“For the first time ever, NASA has put forward a commitment to dramatically expand the number of research and education payloads that fly into space,” said Dr. S. Alan Stern, chair of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation’s Suborbital Applications Researchers Group (SARG) and former NASA associate administrator for science.   “Since this new generation of commercial vehicles are low cost, NASA’s $75 million will open the floodgates for everyone from astronomers to high school classrooms to conduct real science in space.  This will be one of the best investments NASA has ever made.”

“For everyone who has dreamed of participating in the grand adventure of spaceflight, this $75 million commitment marks the dawn of a new space age,” added Stern.  “As the commercial space industry continues to grow, I expect that we will see increasing numbers of payloads and people flying to space.”

“I am pleased to see NASA’s recognition of the transformative potential of these new commercial vehicles,” stated Dr. Fred Tarantino, President and CEO of the Universities Space Research Association.  “The space science community is thrilled to see such a commitment to low-cost, reusable, and frequent access to space that will provide hands-on experience for students and change the way many space scientists operate.”

NASA is proposing to spend $15 million in each of five years from 2011-2015 for the CRuSR program, funds that will both go to universities and other research institutions to build science and education payloads, as well as being used to purchase flights on commercial suborbital vehicles.  The CRuSR program is based at NASA’s Ames Research Center in the heart of Silicon Valley.

The Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference, a first-of-its-kind forum for bringing together scientists, educators, and vehicle developers to discuss potential research and education uses for commercial spacecraft, is being held in Boulder, Colorado and is co-organized by the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), and the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF).

About the Commercial Spaceflight Federation

The mission of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) is to promote the development of commercial human spaceflight, pursue ever higher levels of safety, and share best practices and expertise throughout the industry.  CSF member organizations include commercial spaceflight developers, operators, and spaceports.  The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is governed by a board of directors, composed of the member companies’ CEO-level officers and entrepreneurs. For more information please visit http://www.commercialspaceflight.org or contact Executive Director John Gedmark at john@commercialspaceflight.org or at 202.349.1121.

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Washington, D.C. – At the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference today, Commercial Spaceflight Federation chairman Mark Sirangelo announced the creation of a new affiliates program for universities and other research and educational institutions. 

“Researchers, engineers, and educators will be among the primary beneficiaries of the new generation of low-cost commercial spacecraft, as payload opportunities to space start to grow,” said Mark Sirangelo, Chairman of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation.  “We’re excited to create a new category of affiliate membership to strengthen the ties between the Commercial Spaceflight Federation and the research and education community.”

Initial participating universities include Purdue University, Johns Hopkins University, Princeton University, and George Mason University. 

“I am excited to see universities and other research institutions getting in on the ground floor of the emerging commercial space industry, and to see these early adopters recognizing the research and education potential of these new vehicles,” said space scientist S. Alan Stern, chair of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation’s Suborbital Applications Researchers Group (SARG) and former NASA associate administrator for science.

Benefits to affiliate institutions of joining with the Commercial Spaceflight Federation include: helping connect students with internships in the commercial spaceflight industry, becoming more connected with the commercial spaceflight community, advocacy to increase government support for research payloads on commercial vehicles, and efforts to streamline regulatory processes for research flights.

“We are looking forward to continuing to grow the collaborations between the research community and the commercial space industry,” added Sirangelo.

About the Commercial Spaceflight Federation

The mission of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) is to promote the development of commercial human spaceflight, pursue ever higher levels of safety, and share best practices and expertise throughout the industry.  CSF member organizations include commercial spaceflight developers, operators, and spaceports.  The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is governed by a board of directors, composed of the member companies’ CEO-level officers and entrepreneurs. For more information please visit http://www.commercialspaceflight.org or contact Executive Director John Gedmark at john@commercialspaceflight.org or at 202.349.1121.

Illustration of Blue Origin's orbital crew vehicle, designed to be launched on an Atlas 5, as shown on a NASA slide at an FAA conference last week.

One of the most intriguing NewSpace companies is Blue Origin, perhaps because they’re also one of the most secretive. Backed by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos—and thus without the funding concerns of many other companies in this field—the company has been working for several years on its “New Shepard” vehicle that takes off and lands vertically. While the company has done a few test flights in 2006-2007 that required experimental permits from the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, it hasn’t done any such flights recently, and speculation continues about what the company is, or isn’t, up to, and how long it might be before they have a vehicle flying.

The company has been closely guarded, revealing few details about its developments: its posting in January 2007 about its first test flight (which took place the previous November) has been its biggest bit of publicity. Those who have gotten a look inside the company, though, have been duly impressed. One of those is Dan Rasky of NASA Ames, who visited the company as part of an effort to develop a technology roadmap for commercial RLVs. “I joke with people that if you want to see what a billionaire’s clubhouse looks like, go visit Blue Origin,” he said at a public workshop last week in Washington.

However, Blue Origin isn’t quite as black as it has been. Late last year they announced that they has selected three investigations that would be the first suborbital research payloads the company plans to fly. At that time the company said that the crewed flight opportunities for New Shepard would be in 2012, with the possibility of flying remote-controller or autonomous payloads as early as 2011.

More recently, the company won a small contract from NASA’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) program that has provided a bit more of a peek of what the company is up to. The $3.7-million contract covers the development of two items: work on “pusher” launch escape system and a composite pressure vessel. The escape system would use thrusters below a crew cabin that pushes the cabin away from its launcher in the event of a malfunction, instead of the “tractor” escape systems mounted on top of a crew capsule that pulls it away; the company had been planning something like that for its New Shepard vehicle, whose crew module is designed to separate from the propulsion module and land separately. A composite pressure vessel would, most likely, provide a lighter-weight option for any sort of vehicle that Blue Origin might be developing.

What is interesting is that Blue Origin is actively looking beyond suborbital spaceflight to orbital missions. Proof of that came in a presentation last week by Alan Lindenmoyer, who managers NASA’s Commercial Crew and Cargo Programs, including CCDev. Speaking at the FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference in Washington, he presented slides describing all five CCDev awards, including for Blue Origin. The Blue Origin slide, shown below, revealed that the company was proposing a “bi-conic space vehicle” that could be launched on an Atlas 5 402, a variant of the Atlas 5 with two Centaur engines in its upper stage and no strap-on solid rocket boosters. The slide notes that the composite pressure vessel that would be tested under the CCDev contract would be structural test article of their planned suborbital vehicle “as a subscale demonstrator for the orbital Space Vehicle”.

Blue Origin CCDev award details

Robert Milliman of Blue Origin, who was present at the February 2 NASA press conference in Washington where NASA unveiled the CCDev winners, as well as existing COTS/CRS awardees Orbital Sciences and SpaceX, didn’t provide many details about what the company’s plans were. “The [Blue Origin] team is dedicated to creating technologies for an enduring human presence in space,” he said before briefly describing the technologies funded under their CCDev award.

In very brief comments after the press conference, he said that Blue Origin was still focused on its suborbital program right now, proceeding “step by step”. He didn’t provide any specifics, such as schedule, about the company’s development of New Shepard or any future orbital vehicle, other than to say that flight tests are “coming up”.

It’s not surprising that Blue Origin sees suborbital as a step towards orbital flight, although the concept they proposed for their CCDev contract indicates that, at least in the relatively near term, they’re less likely to scale up New Shepard into an orbital vehicle than use some of that technology for a crewed vehicle that could be launched on an ELV.

A Blue Origin representative is scheduled to speak Thursday at the Next-Generation Suborbital Research Conference in Boulder, Colorado. Maybe we’ll learn a few more details about their vehicle plans. And maybe not.

Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and former House Science and Technology Committee Chairman Robert S. Walker have published an op-ed stating, “The Obama administration’s budget for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration deserves strong approval from Republicans. The 2011 spending plan for the space agency does what is obvious to anyone who cares about man’s future in space and what presidential commissions have been recommending for nearly a decade.”

Their op-ed in The Washington Times, titled “Obama’s Brave Reboot for NASA,” can be read at http://washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/12/obamas-brave-reboot-for-nasa/

In the op-ed, Gingrich and Walker state, “Bipartisan cooperation has been difficult to achieve in Congress, but here is a chance. By looking forward, NASA has given us a way to move forward. It deserves broad support for daring to challenge the status quo.”

Gingrich, who is on the board of governors of the National Space Society, and Walker, who was chairman of the Commission on the Future of the United States Aerospace Industry, add, “In the same way the railroads opened the American West, commercial access can open vast new opportunities in space.” They state that commercial spaceflight “has the potential of creating thousands of new jobs, largely the kind of high-tech work to which our nation should aspire.”

James Cameron, the writer and director of “Avatar” and “Titanic” who served on the NASA Advisory Council from 2003 to 2005, has published an op-ed in The Washington Post endorsing commercial human spaceflight and President Obama’s new plan for NASA. The op-ed, titled “The right way forward on space exploration,” can be read at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/04/AR2010020402439.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

In the op-ed, Cameron states, “By selecting commercial solutions for transportation to the international space station, NASA is empowering American free enterprise to do what it does best: develop technology quickly and efficiently in a competitive environment.”

Cameron concludes the op-ed stating, “I applaud President Obama’s bold decision for NASA to focus on building a space exploration program that can drive innovation and provide inspiration for the world. This is the path that can make our dreams in space a reality.”

Washington, D.C. – At a National Press Club event to “introduce new commercial space pioneers,” the President’s Science Advisor John Holdren and NASA Administrator Charles Bolden yesterday praised the seven winning companies of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) and Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) competitions. This event followed the announcement on February 1 by the White House that NASA would use commercial spaceflight providers to transport NASA astronauts to the International Space Station.

The President’s Science Advisor praised the “complementary strength between NASA and the private sector in order to make human access both to low-Earth orbit and beyond to deep space faster, safer and more affordable.” NASA Administrator Bolden added that with regard to commercial spaceflight, “It’s not a new idea, but rather, an idea whose time has come. The future is unfolding before us now, and it couldn’t be more exciting… Kids will be able to realistically envision a career that involves space, either going there or using it.”

Bretton Alexander, President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, added, “The President’s new commercial crew initiative is on course to accelerate the growth of a vibrant 21st century commercial spaceflight industry, creating thousands of high-tech jobs and inspiring a new generation.”

Executives from Sierra Nevada Corporation, Boeing, United Launch Alliance, Blue Origin, Orbital Sciences, Paragon Space Development Corporation, and SpaceX came to Washington DC to attend the event. Introducing these seven companies and their executives at the press event, Administrator Bolden stated, “These are the faces of the new frontier… We will certainly be adding to this group in the near future.”
SpaceX and Orbital Sciences are the funded participants in NASA’s ongoing COTS program for commercial resupply of the Space Station, and Sierra Nevada Corporation, Boeing, United Launch Alliance, Blue Origin, and Paragon Space Development Corporation were awarded $50 million in seed money for commercial crew through the CCDev program, intended as the precursor to a full $6 billion Commercial Crew Program proposed by NASA. Both the CCDev and COTS programs are commercially structured so that NASA pays only when performance milestones are met.

Alexander added, “To have a large and diverse group of companies present at today’s event, including both established contractors and newer entrants, emphasizes that U.S. industry is ready to handle the task of commercial human spaceflight. Commercial spaceflight means growing an entire industry that will generate returns to our economy and allow America to stop sending billions of dollars to Russia to fly our astronauts.”

In addition to other companies that are developing commercial space vehicles, the seven companies featured in the press conference were:
• Sierra Nevada Corporation, which will receive $20 million in CCDev funds for development milestones for a seven-person spacecraft known as Dreamchaser which will launch on Atlas V.
• The Boeing Company, which will receive $18 million in CCDev funds for development milestones for a seven-person crew capsule for low Earth orbit transportation. Boeing partnered with Bigelow Aerospace, which is developing a series of habitable orbital complexes with two prototypes already in orbit.
• United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin that operates the Atlas and Delta rockets, which will receive $6.7 million in milestone-based CCDev funds to begin developing an emergency detection system for ULA launch systems.
• Blue Origin, which will receive $3.7 million in milestone-based CCDev funds to develop a composite crew test module and a launch escape system for its commercial spaceflight vehicle.
• Orbital Sciences, which has been awarded $171 million in milestone-based COTS funds and received a follow-on contract for International Space Station missions, and is preparing its Taurus II rocket and Cygnus capsule for initial launches in 2011.
• Paragon Space Development Corporation, which will receive $1.4 million in milestone-based CCDev funds for the development of an air revitalization system for use in crewed spacecraft.
• SpaceX, which has been awarded $278 million in milestone-based COTS funds and received a follow-on contract for International Space Station missions, and is preparing its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule for initial launches this year.

About the Commercial Spaceflight Federation
The mission of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) is to promote the development of commercial human spaceflight, pursue ever higher levels of safety, and share best practices and expertise throughout the industry. CSF member organizations include commercial spaceflight developers, operators, and spaceports. The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is governed by a board of directors, composed of the member companies’ CEO-level officers and entrepreneurs. For more information please visit http://www.commercialspaceflight.org or contact Executive Director John Gedmark at john@commercialspaceflight.org or at 202.349.1121.

Washington, D.C., February 1, 2010 – The Commercial Spaceflight Federation welcomes the decision today by President Barack Obama to place U.S. human spaceflight on a new trajectory with major investments in technology, science, exploration, and commercial spaceflight. As part of this plan, NASA’s new competitive commercial crew initiative will invest $6 billion over five years for multiple companies to develop human spaceflight capabilities that will take astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

“President Obama has given NASA a bold and exciting new mission: to once again push the limits in technology and exploration, promote innovation, and foster a vibrant commercial spaceflight sector,” said Bretton Alexander, President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. “In particular, the commercial crew initiative will create thousands of new high-tech jobs, help open the space frontier with lower-cost launches, and inspire a new generation with high-profile missions. This initiative is on par with the government Airmail Act that spurred the growth of early aviation and led to today’s passenger airline industry, which generates billions of dollars annually for the American economy.”

The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is also congratulating today the winners of $50 million in seed money from the Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) competition, which is NASA’s precursor to the full $6 billion commercial crew program. Boeing, United Launch Alliance (ULA), Paragon Space Development Corporation, Blue Origin, and Sierra Nevada Corporation were selected as winners in the CCDev program, which aims to demonstrate hardware milestones on the path to commercial human spaceflight.

Alexander added, “Investing in commercial spaceflight will allow us to create U.S. jobs, rather than continuing to send billions of dollars to Russia to fly our astronauts to space. With so many capable American companies here at home, why would we send all of U.S. human spaceflight to Russia? Let’s create those thousands of jobs right here in the United States.”

Alexander stated, “Commercial crew will reduce the gap in U.S. human spaceflight by using launch vehicles that are either already flying today or are close to launch, such as the Atlas, Taurus, and Falcon. To build orbital capsules for these existing launch vehicles is on a comparable level to the Gemini program in the 1960s, which required only about three years from contract signed to the first flight of a crew.”

“Using demonstrated launch vehicles will not only reduce the gap, but help ensure safety,” emphasized Alexander. “Upcoming cargo flights mean that the Atlas, Taurus, and Falcon rockets will have long track records by the time astronauts are placed onboard. Safety is paramount for the commercial spaceflight industry – commercial spaceflight providers are already trusted by the U.S. government right now to launch multi-billion dollar military satellites, upon which the lives of our troops overseas depend. And over a dozen distinguished former NASA astronauts, including Buzz Aldrin, published an op-ed a few months ago in the Wall Street Journal stating that commercial companies can safely handle the task of low-Earth orbit transportation.”

Alexander concluded, “With President Obama’s historic decision, we stand on the threshold of a new era in space. The commercial spaceflight industry is working to extend the legacy of the Wright Brothers into space, for the mutual benefit of both NASA and the nation.”

About the Commercial Spaceflight Federation
The mission of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) is to promote the development of commercial human spaceflight, pursue ever higher levels of safety, and share best practices and expertise throughout the industry. CSF member organizations include commercial spaceflight developers, operators, and spaceports. The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is governed by a board of directors, composed of the member companies’ CEO-level officers and entrepreneurs. For more information please visit http://www.commercialspaceflight.org or contact Executive Director John Gedmark at john@commercialspaceflight.org or at 202.349.1121.

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Washington, D.C. – The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is issuing the following statement applauding NASA’s anticipated announcement of a $6 billion competitive, commercial crew program and welcoming the President’s show of support for NASA with his significant planned increase for NASA’s overall budget:

Bretton Alexander, President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation:

“NASA investment in the commercial spaceflight industry is a win-win decision: commercial crew will create thousands of high-tech jobs in the United States, especially in Florida, while reducing the spaceflight gap and preventing us from sending billions to Russia. This is on par with the early days of aviation and the U.S. Airmail Act, which spurred the growth of an entire new industry that now adds billions to the US economy every year.”

“At a time when job creation is the top priority for our nation, a commercial crew program will create more jobs per dollar because it leverages millions in private investment and taps the potential of systems that serve both government and private customers. We have a tremendous opportunity here to jump-start private activity in low-Earth orbit that will further lower the cost of access to space and unleash the economic potential of space long promised.”

“Working with NASA, industry can develop the capabilities to safely launch U.S. astronauts just as commercial spaceflight providers are already trusted by the U.S. government right now to launch multi-billion dollar military satellites, upon which the security of our Nation and lives of our troops overseas depend. Investing $6 billion will fund a full program of multiple winners for commercial crew, so that robust competition in the marketplace can reduce costs and generate innovation. We are excited to see such a significant commitment from the Obama Administration and NASA leadership for pursuing this important initiative for NASA and the nation.”

About the Commercial Spaceflight Federation
The mission of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) is to promote the development of commercial human spaceflight, pursue ever higher levels of safety, and share best practices and expertise throughout the industry. CSF member organizations include commercial spaceflight developers, operators, and spaceports. The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is governed by a board of directors, composed of the member companies’ CEO-level officers and entrepreneurs. For more information please visit http://www.commercialspaceflight.org or contact Executive Director John Gedmark at john@commercialspaceflight.org or at 202.349.1121.

Washington, D.C. – The Commercial Spaceflight Federation released the following statement on the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel’s 2009 annual report:

While the Commercial Spaceflight Federation agrees with the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) on its recognition of the importance of commercial spaceflight both for cargo and crew missions, the Commercial Spaceflight Federation disagrees with certain other conclusions and finds some of the assertions in the ASAP’s Annual Report to be incorrect.

The Commercial Spaceflight Federation commends the ASAP on their finding in the ASAP 2009 Annual Report that commercial spaceflight “is emerging as one of the critical programs for NASA” and that “if there is a widening gap, COTS could play a key role and could be a critical program for flight safety of the astronauts.”

The Commercial Spaceflight Federation agrees with the ASAP that NASA must “quickly establish fundamental safety requirements for…programs that may in the future be used to get NASA’s astronauts to Low Earth Orbit (LEO)” and agrees with the ASAP’s direction to NASA that “considerable work must be done,” and that NASA should “accelerate the level of effort underway.” To aid this process, the commercial space industry stands ready to begin working now with NASA to agree on a commercial human-rating plan, including the appropriate standards, requirements for vehicles to meet those standards, and the mechanism by which compliance with those standards will be validated, and industry has established a Commercial Orbital Spaceflight Safety Working Group to engage with NASA and FAA.

Since the ASAP correctly points out that NASA has not yet developed standards and processes for human-rating commercial vehicles, the Commercial Spaceflight Federation disagrees with ASAP’s implication that safety will be compromised because “no COTS manufacturer is currently HRR qualified,” because, quite simply, it is impossible for companies to meet standards that do not currently exist. Until such time as commercial human-rating standards are determined, industry continues to develop vehicle hardware based on the only standards available: those NASA established for its own vehicles, known as NPR 8705.2B. As no commercial provider has yet been tasked by NASA to begin working through a NASA human-rating process, for the ASAP to state that “no COTS manufacturer is currently HRR qualified” is akin to saying that someone didn’t pass his driver’s test when he’s still waiting in line at the DMV and hasn’t even been given the exam yet.

The ASAP’s repeated references to the two “COTS firms” ignores the fact that many companies, including both established firms and new entrants, will compete in the Commercial Crew Program envisioned by the Augustine Committee. While the Falcon 9 and Taurus II vehicles have already met numerous hardware milestones and will have a substantial track record by the time any astronauts are placed onboard, several other potential Commercial Crew providers envision use of launch vehicles such as the Atlas V, vehicles that are already entrusted by the government to launch multi-billion dollar national security payloads upon which the lives of our troops overseas depend.

Despite the ASAP Report’s contention that commercial vehicles are “nothing more than unsubstantiated claims,” the demonstrated track records of commercial vehicles and numerous upcoming manifested cargo flights ensure that no astronaut will fly on a commercial vehicle that lacks a long, proven track record. The Atlas V, for example, has a record of 19 consecutive successful launches and the Atlas family of rockets has had over 90 consecutive successes, and dozens of flights of the Atlas, Taurus, and Falcon vehicles are scheduled to occur before 2014 in addition to successful flights already completed.

Further, thirteen former NASA astronauts, who have accumulated a total of 42 space missions, stated in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed that commercial spaceflight can be conducted safely:
      “We are fully confident that the commercial spaceflight sector can provide a level of safety equal to that offered by the venerable Russian Soyuz system, which has flown safely for the last 38 years, and exceeding that of the Space Shuttle. Commercial transportation systems using boosters such as the Atlas V, Taurus II, or Falcon 9 will have the advantage of multiple unmanned flights to build a track record of safe operations prior to carrying humans. These vehicles are already set to fly over 40 flights to orbit in the next four years.”

In contrast, ASAP describes the Ares I as “demonstrated” despite the fact the Augustine Committee determined the Ares I vehicle will likely not fly until 2017, and the ASAP ignores the fact that NASA is planning to place astronauts on the second orbital flight of the Ares I system. As Constellation program manager Jeff Hanley recently stated, placing astronauts on these early Ares I flights poses a safety risk equal to or worse than that of the current Space Shuttle:
      “What at least some of our work suggests is that, yes, on the second launch the LOC [loss of crew] risk may be roughly on par with today’s mature shuttle risk. Other assessments are less rosy (a little riskier than a shuttle launch).”

The Commercial Spaceflight Federation disagrees with the ASAP’s characterization of a Commercial Crew Program as an “alternative” to Ares I, because these two systems fulfill very different missions – Commercial Crew is not an alternative to systems designed to travel beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Commercial Crew is akin to developing a Gemini spacecraft for low Earth orbit, rather than an Apollo spacecraft for reaching the Moon. The Orion exploration vehicle, for example, must reenter the atmosphere at one-and-a-half times orbital velocity, encountering nearly double the heat loads that a LEO-only spacecraft would encounter. Because it serves a simpler mission, any vehicle that is designed simply to service the Space Station and other LEO destinations will be more cost-effective without sacrificing safety.

The ASAP mischaracterized how safety was treated by The Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee (also known as the “Augustine Committee”). The ASAP’s 2009 Annual Report perpetuates the unfortunate misconception that Augustine Committee inappropriately assumed safety to be a “given” (here the ASAP appears to be misquoting the Augustine Committee’s statement that safety was treated as “sine qua non” – in fact, “sine qua non” is universally defined as “something absolutely indispensable or essential”).  As Norm Augustine stated in a Congressional hearing, safety was “the number one issue for us [the Committee] to consider.”  The Augustine Committee, whose 10 members have cumulatively amassed 293 years of space industry experience, spent an extensive amount of time on safety issues and determined that “the Committee… would not suggest that a commercial service be provided for transportation of NASA crew if NASA could not be convinced that it was substantially safe.” In contrast, the ASAP stated it has “not yet had the opportunity to evaluate any of these [commercial] concepts with regard to inherent safety issues.

About the Commercial Spaceflight Federation
The mission of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) is to promote the development of commercial human spaceflight, pursue ever higher levels of safety, and share best practices and expertise throughout the industry. CSF member organizations include commercial spaceflight developers, operators, and spaceports. The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is governed by a board of directors, composed of the member companies’ CEO-level officers and entrepreneurs. For more information please visit http://www.commercialspaceflight.org or contact Executive Director John Gedmark at john@commercialspaceflight.org or at 202.349.1121.

New Mexico and Virginia have been among the leading states in supporting entrepreneurial space efforts. New Mexico committed $200 million to develop Spaceport America and lure Virgin Galactic to their state; Virginia has supported the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), bringing Orbital Sciences’ Taurus 2 rocket there as well as passing laws to support space activities in the state. The two states, though, are continuing their efforts to support the industry, although in different directions.

In Virginia, new governor Bob McDonnell expressed his support for funding for MARS in a speech to state legislators Monday. “Governor Kaine committed to invest $1.3 million in the Virginia Spaceport,” McDonnell said, referring to his predecessor, Tim Kaine. “We can make Wallops Island the top commercial Spaceport in America, and I ask you to keep that money in place so that we can aggressively recruit aerospace companies and promote space tourism initiatives.”

A day later, New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, a staunch advocate of Spaceport America, mentioned the spaceport in his speech. “I’m pleased to report that Spaceport America is ahead of schedule and under budget,” he said in his “State of the State” address. “For those who doubt if the Spaceport will bring in business, you should know that Virgin Galactic has over forty two million dollars deposited for more than three hundred reservations.”

Richardson also called on legislators to “pass legislation allowing participants to assume the risks of spaceflight.” That’s a reference to the “Space Flight Informed Consent Act”, legislation introduced into the state Senate this year that would indemnify vehicle operators from claims of liability provided that spaceflight participants sign a waiver (with the exception of cases of “gross negligence”). Richardson noted the legislation is needed for New Mexico to stay competitive with Virginia, which was the first state to pass indemnification legislation, in 2007, as well as Florida and Texas, which also passed related bills since then.

As we noted here last week, Florida’s Cecil Field has its spaceport license but is still in search of customers, thanks to the limited number of companies whose vehicles are qualified to use it and the current state of the industry. Cecil Field will have to compete against a number of other current and planned spaceports to attract vehicle operators, like Mojave Air and Space Port in California and Spaceport America in New Mexico.

And yet more spaceports are in the planning and development stages. The Cecil Field announcement came along with word that two other sites in Florida, Kennedy Space Center and the little-known Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport, a site in the Everglades with a single runway 3,200 meters long, are being considered by the state for spaceport status. Also last week, Indiana announced plans for its own spaceports, seeking to designate two airports as “primary” and “secondary” spaceports. HB 1227, introduced in the state’s House of Representatives, would also provide tax breaks for “space transportation technology” (and a tax deduction for the “loss of a space vehicle”) and require the state’s Department of Transportation to “develop policies and programs to encourage research and development enabling the ingress and egress into low earth orbit and near space from Indiana spaceports.”

People in Florida and Indiana—and other places contemplating spaceports—would do well to learn the lesson of Oklahoma, which a decade ago sought to lure companies to an abandoned air force base in the western part of the state. Rocketplane came to the state to take advantage of tax credits the state offered, and planned to fly from Oklahoma Spaceport, the former Clinton-Sherman Air Force Base in Burns Flat. However, Rocketplane has since run into financial problems, and in an article in Sunday’s The Oklahoman, Bill Khourie, executive director of the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority (OSIDA), seemed to suggest they were gone for good. “It’s basically old news,” he said in a video accompanying the article. “Rocketplane’s not around any longer.”

The state, while hoping to attract Armadillo Aerospace or XCOR Aerospace to the spaceport, is looking at more down-to-earth options for use of the spaceport. That includes aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul work as well as trying to get cargo companies like FedEx and UPS to make use of the airport. The article hints, though, that the facility’s future as a spaceport might be in jeopardy. OSIDA got just under half a million dollars in the state’s latest budget, but next year’s funding could come under scrutiny as Oklahoma, like many other states, grapple with fiscal problems. “I sure don’t think it will ever be a spaceport,” Rep. David Dank, a critic of the spaceport and the tax credits given to Rocketplane, told the paper.

In the Indianapolis TV station account of the plans to establish spaceports in Indiana, Brian Tanner, director of Space Port Indiana, a company planning to establish spaceflight operations from the state, claims that “it’s a near certainty that Indiana will become a hub for space research”. A decade ago, they were probably saying the same thing in Oklahoma.

Last week the British consultancy Fast Future released a government-commission report titled “The shape of jobs to come”. The purpose of the report was to identify potential new careers enabled by advances in science and technology. The report featured 20 such future careers (summarized in a separate fact sheet), ranging from “memory augmentation surgeon” to “weather modification police”. Included in that list is “space pilots, tour guides, and architects”:

With companies already promising space tourism, we will need space pilots and tour guides, as well as architects to design where they will live and work. Current projects at SICSA (University of Houston) include a greenhouse on Mars, lunar outposts and space exploration vehicles.

“Space pilot” is pretty easy to understand, as is “space architect”, even if that might seem a little too forward leaning. But what exactly would a “space tour guide” do? Here’s how the report explains it:

Space tour guides will draw on cosmology, astronomy, space science, geography, history and geology to help passengers get the most out of their journey. While the factual side of the tour is important, space guides also need to be excellent storytellers and imaginers to help inspire their charges and encourage them to experience the true awe of space travel. Regular tour guides will need to undergo a similar level of physical and mental preparation and testing as pilots before each trip.

That seems a little much, at least for suborbital flights when customers will only be spending minutes in space and weightlessness. However, there may be the need for the equivalent of flight attendants to guide customers, particularly on flights where people are able to float around the cabin during weightless portion of their flights. (Interestingly, the animations of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo flight experiment don’t include this, although ZERO-G does have flight attendants for their parabolic airplane flights.) Once there are regular orbital tourist flights and facilities to host customers in orbit, then we may see the need for such guides, although as much for safety reasons as for enhancing the tourist experience.

One other interesting aspect of the study is that the job category is the space jobs category is relatively interesting to the public. Asked to name their three most popular job categories in a poll, 19% of UK respondents and 24% of Europeans picked the category, good enough for fifth-highest among Europeans. The job category also ranked in the top five among both Britons and Europeans in terms of having the greatest impact on innovation and economic growth, as well as being the best paid (presumably the former justifying the latter). Finally, the category ranked first among “most aspirational” jobs; the report didn’t explicitly define what it meant to be “aspirational”.

Washington, D.C. – Showcasing the growing interest in conducting research and education missions aboard commercial suborbital spacecraft, eleven researchers including members of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation’s Suborbital Applications Researchers Group (SARG) successfully completed a training program yesterday at The National Aerospace Training and Research (NASTAR) Center in Pennsylvania.

The training included classroom instruction, altitude chamber training, multi-axis centrifuge training for launch and reentry accelerations, and several distraction factor exercises, simulating the conditions that scientist-astronauts will experience during future missions to 100 km altitude.

“For this diverse group of scientists to invest their own time and money for astronaut training is a true testament to the growing excitement behind the science potential of new commercial spacecraft,” said Dr. S. Alan Stern, chairman of SARG and a principal organizer of the scientist training program. “Interest was so high that we’ve already filled up a second class of a dozen scientists for spring 2010.”

“Just as important was the training success rate from this week,” added Stern. “Of the 11 scientists, a diverse group of men and women ranging from 26 to 52 years old, 100% of them passed the centrifuge training, and all but one passed the altitude chamber training. That’s not only impressive, but bodes well for regular researchers being able to accompany their laboratory equipment to space in the years to come.”

“We are constantly impressed with the enthusiasm of the scientific community for the potential of next-generation commercial reusable spacecraft, such as those being developed by Armadillo Aerospace, Blue Origin, Masten Space Systems, Virgin Galactic, and XCOR Aerospace,” added John Gedmark, Executive Director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. “We’ve had tremendous interest at recent science workshops we’ve conducted at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the American Geophysical Union annual conference, and the Aerospace Medical Association annual conference, with over 150 scientists attending in total.”

Brienna Henwood, Business Development and Program Manager for Space and Research at The NASTAR Center, stated, “I am thrilled to add the Suborbital Scientist Course to our current offerings. The course is more than just physiology training, it provides an overview about suborbital research and is ideal for anyone interested in learning more about the growing opportunities that rest within the commercial spaceflight industry.”

Institutions sending researchers, students and graduate students to the inaugural program included Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Boston University, the Denver Museum of Natural Sciences (DMNS), the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Central Florida (UCF) and the Universities Space Research Association (USRA).

About the Commercial Spaceflight Federation
The mission of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) is to promote the development of commercial human spaceflight, pursue ever higher levels of safety, and share best practices and expertise throughout the industry. CSF member organizations include commercial spaceflight developers, operators, and spaceports. The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is governed by a board of directors, composed of the member companies’ CEO-level officers and entrepreneurs. For more information please visit http://www.commercialspaceflight.org or contact Executive Director John Gedmark at john@commercialspaceflight.org or at 202.349.1121.

An initial group of a dozen prospective scientist-astronauts will begin a two-day training program today at the NASTAR Center just outside Philadelphia in preparation for future flights on commercial suborbital vehicles. The training will include both classroom instruction and “altitude chamber training, multi-axes centrifuge training for launch and reentry accelerations, and several distraction factor exercises”, all designed to prepare people for the experience of suborbital spaceflight. As noted here previously, there’s growing interest in using suborbital vehicles being developed to service the space tourism market for scientific applications as well, something that will be the focus of a conference next month in Colorado.

Among those at the NASTAR Center for the training program are former CNN space reporter Miles O’Brien and SpaceRef’s Keith Cowing, who will covering the event at OnOrbit, including live streaming video during the training sessions. They also advise checking out the the blog of one of the attendees, Joe Hill, who writes that she is “desperately excited about this opportunity but more than a little afraid” that she might not be able to handle the G-forces or other factors that will be tested in the training. There’s also the Twitter tag #suborbital to follow, although there’s not much there now.

Also, attendees will get to sport a new “Suborbital Scientist” patch that NASTAR announced yesterday, the result of a student competition won by an MIT grad student.

After years of effort, Florida’s Cecil Field got some good news Monday: they got their commercial spaceport license from the FAA. The former naval air station outside Jacksonville, currently used primarily for cargo and general aviation, will now be able to host horizontal launches of reusable launch vehicles for suborbital space tourism and potentially orbital launches as well.

There’s just one problem: it’s not clear if anyone will use Cecil Field as a spaceport any time soon. The license covers only horizontally-launched vehicles, so vertically-launched suborbital RLVs, like those proposed by Armadillo Aerospace, Blue Origin, and Masten Space Systems, would not be able to use Cecil. Also, the license apparently covers only some classes of horizontal vehicles, as a section of the final environmental assessment (EA) for Cecil’s spaceport license states:

Under the Proposed Action, JAA would offer the launch site to launch operators for two types of horizontal, piloted RLVs, referred to as Concept X and Concept Z launch vehicles. The Concept X vehicle contains two turbojet engines and two rocket engines powered by Jet-A fuel and liquid oxygen (LOX). The Concept Z vehicle consists of two components – a carrier aircraft mated with a suborbital launch vehicle. The carrier vehicle would have turbo jet engines while the launch vehicle would use a hybrid rocket engine powered by nitrous oxide and hydroxylterminated polybutadiene.

The Concept X vehicle sounds like Rocketplane Global’s XP vehicle (although the XP has one rocket engine, not two) while the Concept Z vehicle is clearly SpaceShipTwo. What’s not included here is a vehicle that takes off horizontally under rocket power, like XCOR’s Lynx.

The problem for Cecil is that Rocketplane Global is currently in stasis, with no guarantee that it will resume development of its vehicle (which would fly from Cecil 48 times a year, according to the EA). Meanwhile, Virgin Galactic is committed to Spaceport America, and Cecil Field hasn’t been included among the other sites the company has publicly stated it’s interested in, such as Sweden and the UAE. Moreover, the EA only anticipated four flights a year of the Concept Z vehicle.

Todd Linder, of the Jacksonville Aviation Authority, tells Reuters that his agency is working with “several potential customers”, but declined to identify them. “The big difference between Cecil Field and the New Mexico spaceport is that we have facilities already in place,” he said. That’s true, but arguably the bigger difference is that Spaceport America has a tenant signed up, and Cecil Field doesn’t. Infrastructure is necessary, but as facilities like Oklahoma Spaceport can attest, they’re alone not sufficient.

One final note: in a blog post announcing the license, Space Florida president Frank DiBello noted that Cecil Field isn’t the only facility that the state is contemplating developing for supporting suborbital spaceflight. “This capability – in addition to similar potential sites currently being researched at Kennedy Space Center and in Southern Florida – is critical to providing our state with the competitive edge it needs to be a key player in the U.S. space tourism industry,” he writes. KSC has the Shuttle Landing Facility, a runway that will soon no longer be needed for its primary mission of supporting shuttle landings. The southern Florida reference is less clear, as no specific proposal for a facility there has been announced.

Washington, D.C.– NASA’s Deputy Administrator, Lori Garver, will be the opening keynote speaker at the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference on February 18-20, 2010, at which scientists, engineers, educators, and vehicle developers will gather to discuss the research and education benefits of new commercial suborbital spacecraft.

The conference, co-organized by the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), will take place in Boulder, Colorado. Deputy Administrator Garver is scheduled to speak on the opening day of the conference on Thursday, February 18.

“We are honored to have Lori Garver keynote the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference,” said Bretton Alexander, President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. “The commercial spaceflight industry is excited to work with NASA and other government agencies to utilize new commercial vehicles for science, technology development, workforce development, and education. Companies such as Blue Origin, Masten Space Systems, Virgin Galactic, Armadillo Aerospace, and XCOR Aerospace are developing and testing suborbital vehicles that will enable exciting new scientific and research applications.”

Space scientist and lead conference organizer Dr. S. Alan Stern, chair of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation’s Suborbital Applications Researchers Group (SARG), stated, “The Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference will mark a watershed moment in the growth of research and education applications for these new commercial spacecraft.” Stern, who also serves as Associate Vice President at the Southwest Research Institute, added, “Lori Garver will join an all-star lineup of speakers that includes Dr. Pete Worden, NASA Ames Research Center Director; Dr. George Nield, Associate Administrator of the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation; former NASA astronauts Rick Searfoss and Sam Durrance; and a multidisciplinary group of leading scientists, engineers, and educators. We encourage anyone with an interest in this growing new industry to come and join us in Boulder, Colorado next month.”

For more information and to register for the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference, visit http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/nsrc2010/. A discount for early pre-registration is available through Friday, January 15, 2010.

Lori B. Garver has served as Deputy Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration since July 17, 2009. As deputy administrator, Garver is NASA’s second in command. She is responsible to the administrator for providing overall leadership, planning, and policy direction for the agency. Garver represents NASA to the Executive Office of the President, Congress, heads of government agencies, international organizations, and external organizations and communities. She also oversees the work of NASA’s functional offices, including the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, Office of General Counsel and Office of Strategic Communications.

About the Commercial Spaceflight Federation
The mission of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) is to promote the development of commercial human spaceflight, pursue ever higher levels of safety, and share best practices and expertise throughout the industry. CSF member organizations include commercial spaceflight developers, operators, and spaceports. The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is governed by a board of directors, composed of the member companies’ CEO-level officers and entrepreneurs. For more information please visit http://www.commercialspaceflight.org or contact Executive Director John Gedmark at john@commercialspaceflight.org or at 202.349.1121.