We have sympathy from our colleagues at Virgin Galactic. Last week I met with Virgin employees who were here from Mojave Air and Space Port. As the press reported, Virgin Galactic had an unveiling ceremony recently and released videos and photographs of Virgin SpaceShip the VSS Unity. The VSS Unity is being built by the […]
Read the NTSB report on the SpaceShipTwo accident
In the past year, we have experienced three aviation deaths at or near the Las Cruces Municipal Airport. All three of the accidents are being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The NTSB website states in part, it is a federal agency which does not assign fault or blame for an accident or […]
Take time to show compassion to the Virgin Galactic employees here in our community
Take time to show compassion to the Virgin Galactic employees here in our community. When I started working in the space industry 26 years ago, I was unfamiliar with its vocabulary. My boss was critical of any misuse of the “technical” language which did not help me to continue to experiment with new vocabulary. Using […]
It only takes one meeting
As sequestration begins its effect on our lives may never be fully realized or calculable. This government policy is slowly starting to pull our economy apart as budget negotiations start in Washington. Shutting down the government as a strategy didn’t work during the “Contract with America” in 1994 as non-essential government services were halted for […]
The sequester: It’s like the flu or a hangover
The sequester: It’s like the flu or a hangover. You’ve got it now how are you going to get through it? So let’s take the first case, the flu. You did not give yourself the flu but you’ve got it. The thing about the flu is you don’t know how bad it is until it’s […]
Why didn’t I think of that?
Why didn’t I think of that? The TV remote control/bottle opener, the swivel passenger car seat, or the battery operated twirling spaghetti fork? You know it, I’ll bet at least once you’ve thought of some cool invention and then let it slip away into the graveyard of great ideas. Lauren Rojas, a seventh grader from […]
Len Sugerman and Neil Armstrong
I have a picture in my office of Len Sugerman and Neil Armstrong at a conference in Berlin, Germany in 1975. They were attending a guidance, navigation and control symposium. In those days, the now very well known Global Positioning System was a US military program and was used to assure accuracy for ICBMs. In […]
Let’s Build CrucesSat
Have you ever been in a group discussion and found the discussion dominated by one person? What goes through your mind? Last week I was in London at the Farnborough International Air Show and present when Richard Branson announced the LauncherOne. Sir Richard said, “I’m immensely proud of what we have already achieved as we […]
Teaching and Learning
The core of my motivation in writing is not only to examine major issues in the commercial space transportation industry, but to also learn along with you. The emerging commercial space industry is fascinating. It is about much more than space. This week I have been working on a spaceport panel for the commercial space […]
Dream Chaser
Did you know the United States copied a Russian space plane called the BOR-4 and adapted it in the 1990’s to a manned orbital space plane called the HL 20? On Tuesday, November 8th, I went to the Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC) plant in Livingston, Colorado, accompanied by Carl Ehrlich, the manager of the Rockwell […]
