It took courage and leadership for Dan Hicks and his team to carry off the first Spaceport America Cup. Leadership, because if anything went wrong, Mr. Hicks is the one wringable neck. Courage because of the complexity of the tasks to be carried out. When you have students of all ages involved with explosives, think […]
VSS Unity’s First Solo Flight
Finally: Virgin SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity completed her first glide flight! It’s been just over two years since the accident. I wish I could have seen her on her own without the mother ship. Up until Saturday, she was always in captive carry mode. That is she was carried and firmly attached to WhiteKnightTwo, VMS Eve […]
A closed mind is a narrow road
In my first business class the professor said we would be learning about companies like General Motors, Boeing, Xerox and other large corporations than made up the U.S. industrial base. We were going to learn about large market trends like the oil and gas markets and we were going to learn how to understand how […]
What would a three week General Election season be like?
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 […]
We can get there from here
We can get there from here. Brian Chesky’s business is worth $25 billion and sometimes he rents out his couch for $40 a night. He’s the founder of Airbnb. Recently he was at the 2nd annual Airbnb Open, a gathering in Paris of over 5,000 of his Airbnb hosts and 645 employees. At the event […]
The Full Story: The NTSB report on the SpaceShipTwo accident is out today
Today at 7:30 am MT, the National Transportation Safety Board will release its final report on the Virgin Galactic accident that occurred on a powered test flight of SpaceShipTwo October 31st, 2014. In a preliminary report issued by the NTSB last November, it was reported the pilot who survived the crash of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo […]
The waves do not rise, but when the wind blows
The state legislature has been in session for two weeks now. Reports are coming from Santa Fe about southern New Mexico. More debate is occurring about the future of our spaceport. Establishing a new industry like commercial space transportation requires demand for its products and services. Commercial products of the commercial space transportation industry include […]
The Orion Space Capsule
America’s first human space program began in 1959 with the Mercury Program. The Mercury Program’s 3rd mission carried Alan Shepard in the Freedom 7 space capsule one hundred and sixteen miles to space at a speed of fifty one hundred and eighty miles per hour, mission duration was fifteen minutes. That flight took place on […]
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 […]
Sitting on the sidelines is not an option
NASA may make the announcement this week on the final selection of the private company or companies they will work with to return American astronauts to the International Space Station on space vehicles Made In America, not Russia. This is part of the NASA Commercial Crew Development program. I have written about women from New […]
