George French recently joined Rocketplane Kistler, of which his father is investor. George got started with a trip to space camp with his father. At the space camp his father found a passion with space and is CEO of Rocketplane Kistler.
George went over some of the rockets they have designed and are developing. They have plans to launch in 2009. They will be operating out of the Burns Flat Oklahoma space port and out of Woomera, Australia. They have orbitable and suborbitable rocket ships, both reusable.
Probably the most exciting part of George’s talk is an announcement that they have signed a Letter of Intent with Bigelow. They have a goal of starting in 2012 to put tourists into space! There were a few questions about the cost, George said he didn’t know.
He talked about Vanishing Point Game, developed by Microsoft with their release of Windows Vista. Microsoft is giving a free ride to space as the grand prize!
Rand has additional comments on George French’s speech.
The next speech was by Dana Andrews of Andrews Space & Technology. The company was formed in 1999. They have been doubling in size every year since. They are hiring. He said they were up to 72 employees before he came to the conference and he expects the company will be bigger when he gets back. The company is self funding. They are based in Seattle.
They do work for NASA. They did a design for a trip to the moon and Mars. They did a mock up. NASA liked it and took it. Then NASA put their logo over the Andrews’ logo.
Dana went over several of the projects they are working on. There was a list of a bunch of companies Andrews works with and works for.
The company goal is to “Be a catalyst in the development, exploration, and commercialization of space.” They feel like they now have a critical mass to go off and do something on their own. They are looking for the right opportunity.
Bruce Pittman of NASA is part of a Space Portal effort. A question was asked “If space is so great, we aren’t we using it more?” The shuttle had a lot of incredible experiments. One of the things they found industry needs is regular access, they can’t wait for three years to get a slot on a shuttle. Bruce said there is a lot of money out there for a good business case.
NASA is working at giving up control. They have “space acts agreements.” Bruce says this is hard for NASA to do and to give NASA some support even if they don’t do it perfectly.
Bruce acknowledge it is complex and challenging to get to the Space Station and do experiments in the Space Station. NASA is trying to simplify.
Bruce said NASA is trying to pattern their current efforts after how the United States government tried to support the early aircraft industry. Congress has passed some legislation to support commercial space. NASA is trying to adopt a “Friendly Front Door” where someone has the responsibility to be helpful with private industry.
First: Introduction
Overview: the agenda
Previous: Thursday evening - NASA, Space Studies Institute, Space Law, Speed Up, Dayton Advanced Rocket Team.
Next: DoD and ITAR
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Technorati tags: Space Access Rocketplane Kistler Bigelow Andrews NASA
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