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 […]
The Company You Keep
The company you keep will define the opportunities you meet. Years ago, it seems a lifetime ago, I had a meeting with the Director of the Operationally Responsive Space (ORS), Dr. Peter Wegner. Dr. Wegner had recently arrived at Kirtland Air Force base in Albuquerque to set up Chile Works, a Skunk Works type […]
Congratulations to the new space scientists
Good news! All the algae flown to space on June 21 from Spaceport America survived. Abe Anderson with Sapphire Energy was New Mexico Space Grant’s technical advisor on this flight. He completed the initial analysis on the algae cultures. After the flight, the health and growth rate of the cultures that went to space were […]
Notes from the field: It is never routine to go to space
We got off to an early start with students, teachers, parents, the Alan’s – Alan Hale and Allan Lockheed, who came again to witness our journey back to space. Lights in the parking lot, like in the movie Field of Dreams. Lights as far as I can see, cars, busses, filled with students, parents, friends, […]
Learning to tell a better story about spaceflight
When I tell people I am in the commercial space business, I now use a hand gesture. I point up. Otherwise they think I sell in commercial space in warehouses, or in shopping malls. I have been traveling a great deal in these past three weeks. The more I work to build our industry, the […]
Who knows?
Who knows? You might end up in space. That was the closing line in a recent Wall. Street Journal written by Mary Kissel. She interviewed Richard Branson recently to discuss his new book, “Screw Business as Usual”. Now that the 2011 International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight (ISPCS) is done, we are focusing on […]
Familarity leads to Mastery
I am preparing to speak to the customers of Virgin Galactic who are here for the events at the Spaceport. We are discussing philanthropy today. Virgin Galactic customers have started a program to support the education projects we are flying from Spaceport America. Granted, none of the education experiments will be flying on the Virgin […]
This is great news for us
NASA has selected seven companies to integrate and fly technology payloads on commercial suborbital reusable platforms that carry payloads near the boundary of space. As part of NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program, each successful vendor will receive an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract. These two-year contracts, worth a combined total of $10 million, will allow NASA to draw […]
A Once in a Lifetime Opportunity
Students describe it as a once in a lifetime opportunity, New Mexico Space Grant working to bring space into the classroom now. Watch this video to find out how.
Endeavour’s last rodeo
Did you ever notice the relationship between the difficulty of getting into something and your willingness to get out? To put it another way, the more time and energy, sweat, blood and toil invested in creating a relationship, a business, or a space program, the less willingness over time there is to get out. And […]
