September 2003 | VOL. 2| No. 10
 
 

CORPORATE MEMBERS

• PARTNERS •
The Aerospace Corporation
Analytical Graphics, Inc.
 Arianespace, Inc.
ATK Thiokol
BAE Systems
 Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.
 The Boeing Company
Booz Allen Hamilton
 Computer Sciences
Corporation
 Eastman Kodak Company
Florida Space Authority
 GE Johnson Construction
Company
 General Dynamics
 Harris Corporation
 Holland & Hart LLP
Integral Systems, Inc.
Lockheed Martin Corporation
 Network Appliance, Inc.
Northrop Grumman
Orbital Sciences Corporation
Raytheon Company
SPACE.com
 Space News
 Spectrum Astro, Inc.
 Swales Aerospace
 United Space Alliance

• PATRONS •
Aerojet
Analex
AT&T Government Markets
AXA Space
CMC Electronics Cincinnati
CSP Associates, Inc.
Honeywell Space Systems
Infinite Links
Inmarsat
ITT Industries
 ManTech International Corporation
MicroSat Systems
Pratt & Whitney Space Propulsion
 SpaceVest
Stellar Solutions
Titan Corporation
Valador, Inc.
Veridian

SPACE FOUNDATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS
William B. Tutt,
Tutco LLC,
CHAIRMAN
John Higginbotham, SpaceVest,
VICE CHAIRMAN
Donovan B. Hicks,
Cygnus Enterprise Development, LLC,
SECRETARY
Dr. Jaleh Daie,
Aurora Equity LLC, TREASURER
Dr. William F. Ballhaus, Jr.,
The Aerospace Corporation
Dr. Guion S. Bluford, Jr.,
Aerospace Technology Group
Wes Bush, Northrop Grumman Space Technology
Lou Dobbs,
CNN, Lou Dobbs Moneyline
Gen. Howell Estes III, USAF (Retired),
Howell Estes & Associates, Inc.
William MacDonald 'Mac' Evans, Former President,
Canadian Space Agency
Paul Graziani,
Analytical Graphics, Inc.
Richard P. MacLeod,
President Emeritus,
Space Foundation
Joanne Maguire, Lockheed Martin Space & Strategic Missiles
Gen. Thomas S. Moorman, Jr., USAF (Retired),
Booz Allen Hamilton
Michael I. Mott,
The Boeing Company – NASA Systems
Dr. Diana Natalicio, University of Texas at El Paso
Gen. John 'Pete' L. Piotrowski USAF (Retired), Science Applications International Corp.
VADM Richard H. Truly, USN (Retired),
National Renewable Energy Lab
Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson,
Rose Center for Earth and Science
The Honorable Robert S. Walker,
Wexler & Walker Public Policy Associates

DIRECTORS EMERITUS
Robert Anderson,
Rockwell
The Honorable Kenneth Kramer,
U.S. Court of Veterans Appeals
The Honorable Jaime Oaxaca, Coronado Communications Group
Dr. Simon Ramo,
Northrop Grumman

HONORARY BOARD MEMBERS
Norman R. Augustine
CAPT James A. Lovell, Jr., USN (Retired)

LIFE DIRECTORS
The Honorable E.C. "Pete" Aldridge
James M. Beggs
CAPT Eugene A. Cernan, USN (Retired)
The Honorable Don Fuqua
The Honorable Jake Garn
James B. Hayes
Bill Hudson
Sam F. Iacobellis
W. Bruce Kopper
The Honorable Bill Nelson
Richard D. O'Connor

  

Strong Industry Support Accounts for Space Foundation Successes

Elizabeth Eisenstat
Vice President, Strategic Partnership Development & Corporate Sales

By all accounts, Strategic Space 2003 was a huge success and the positive feedback we have received from participants has been overwhelming. It was "standing room only" at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Omaha, September 2-4. Key officials from United States Strategic Command, NASA, Air Force Space Command, the National Reconnaissance Office, Naval Network and Space Operations, Army Space & Missile Defense Command and the aerospace industry discussed the latest in military space programs and the recent assignment of space missions to Strategic Command. The extent to which senior officials from STRATCOM participated in the conference was definitely noted by those in attendance. Several industry participants expressed their desire to maintain an on-going dialogue with the Command and to hear more about what STRATCOM needs from the industry. Based on customer feedback, the Strategic Space conference will become an annual event held in Omaha.

Please place the following events on your calendar:

If you would like to know more about sponsorship or exhibiting opportunities at any of our events, please contact us at 719-576-8000 ext. 122 or by sending an e-mail to Elizabeth@spacefoundation.org. Visit our web site at www.spacefoundation.org for more information about all our programs.

Policy and Public Affairs

Steve Eisenhart
Vice President, Policy and Public Affairs

The Space Foundation will be active in the month ahead participating on panels at events conducted in partnership with the American Astronautical Society, George Mason University and the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association.

"The U.S. Government Space Sector" short course will be presented October 22-24 by the GMU School of Public Policy's Center for Aerospace Policy Research and co-sponsored by the AAS and Space Foundation. The course has been developed primarily for people who are just entering the space field - civil servants, military and non-government alike – who would benefit from a broad-based understanding of the overall extent of the U.S. Government's involvement in space. The Foundation will join government, industry, academia and association representatives in presentations and panels. For more information, visit www.gmupolicy.net/space/.

Space Foundation President and CEO Elliot Pulham will moderate a panel of senior European space executives at the 20th Sky Forum, presented by the SBCA October 30th at The Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. Sky Forum is a semi-annual event designed to examine the rapidly developing satellite services industry and focused on the financial community. For more information visit www.sbca.com.

Space Foundation Hosts Colorado Space Grant Consortium

Patricia Arnold, Ph.D.
Vice President, Education and Workforce Development

On September 19 and 20, 2003, the Space Foundation hosted the Colorado Space Grant Consortium selected by NASA in 1989. The CSGC, led by the University of Colorado at Boulder, consists of 14 Colorado colleges and universities and the Space Foundation. CSGC works to enhance the educational experience of students throughout the state based on cooperative relationships among universities, colleges, industry, research organizations, NASA, and other Space Grant programs - and to cultivate this rich cooperative environment to provide incentives, educational opportunities, and educational excellence in space science and engineering.

During the meeting a number of topics were discussed including; review of the CSGC 15 YEAR EVALUATION PROGRAM PERFORMANCE AND RESULTS REPORT and the signing of the Statement of Consortium Concurrence.

Additionally, members gave reports on Activities and the Demo Sat Program. The Colorado Space Grant Consortium, headquartered at CU-Boulder, started the Demo Sat project with a $100,000 grant from NASA in December 2002. The project is an expansion of the successful Balloon Sat program developed in recent years by CSGC Deputy Director Christopher Koehler.

Student teams from a dozen Colorado colleges and universities came together this summer to launch a series of high-altitude balloon experiments, helping to develop new technologies such as a "black box" that could provide information on the cause of a spacecraft failure.

The students prototyped and tested concepts suggested by NASA scientists and engineers, many of which could be used on future space flights, Mars landings, or probes to Jupiter. A total of 15 experiments were launched on two balloons on August 2, 2003, including scientific instrumentation for measuring atmospheric pressures and wind speed in the upper atmosphere, prototype methods for orienting Mars landers and probes, and other technologies.

Students received valuable hands-on experience while connecting a network of Colorado campuses and K-12 schools in space sciences research. More than 400 college students across the state were involved in Demo Sat, along with 13 scientists and engineers at the Jet Propulsion Lab and Ames Research Center, and nearly 40 educators and academic advisors. About 3,000 K-12 students also were involved through outreach to Colorado schools. For more information on the CSGC or Demo Sat check the website http://spacegrant.colorado.edu.

The Space Foundation collaborates and supports CSGC activities through educator and student training and research.

Centennial of Flight educator conference a hit!

200 K-12 educators are expected and more than 100 have already registered for the Space Foundation’s first educational conference of its kind, the 2003 Colorado Centennial of Flight Celebration, scheduled Nov. 6-7 at the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA). The Space Foundation has teamed up with the USAFA and NASA to offer this exciting hands-on educational workshop, and has been officially recognized by the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission as the conference host.

Erik Lindbergh, grandson of Charles Lindbergh, will present the story of his own journey on the New Spirit of St. Louis with fascinating images and lessons learned during his epic flight. The conference also offers an evening of educator training, followed by an optional day of K-12 student activities and USAFA tours. Registrants attend seminars on aviation and space, which introduce standards-based curriculum and materials on physical science, mathematics, Earth science, history, and integration into literacy and art.

Register for Centennial of Flight by calling the Space Foundation at
1-800-691-4000. All conference registrants receive standards-based lesson plans, hands-on inquiry student activities, educational CDs, posters and more.

Columbia Shuttle Trust Fund

Besides the fact that they're both bald, what does Norm Augustine have in common with Ron Howard? They're both on the board of the Columbia Shuttle Memorial Trust – a fund set up to provide for the families of the STS-107 crew.

Hollywood moguls, politicians, stronauts and space industry leaders have banded together to form the Columbia Shuttle Memorial Trust. With life insurance unavailable to astronauts and government benefits limited, the trust was formed to raise funds for the spouses, parents and children of the Columbia crew . . . and to erect monuments in affected communities in Texas and Louisiana. The Trust was launched at a National Press Club event Sept. 16, with Lockheed Martin making the first corporate contribution of $1 million.

To find out more about the fund or to make an on-line donation, visit www.columbia7trust.org.

 


We must get in our spaceships and go.

Risk takers and dreamers. If you're looking for a few, look no further than the signatures on the Declaration of Independence. The United States has always been, and I hope shall forever remain, a nation of dreamers and risk takers.

Like many Americans, I learned from an early age that nothing worth having comes easy. Dedication. Perspiration. Risk. These are the things. Vince Lombardi's exhortation about what it means to lie exhausted, victorious, on the field of battle. Teddy Roosevelt's aversion to those "timid souls" who, because they fail to "dare greatly" know neither victory nor defeat. Such is the stuff we are made of.

With the release of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board report, the "timid souls" and risk averse are with us once more. Human space flight isn't worth the risk, they say.

Bull.

Having humans at the center of space exploration and development is what makes it all worthwhile. Anything less is pseudo exploration - interesting, but irrelevant.

I seldom draw social inspiration from sports writers, but Sports Illustrated's Frank Deford hit it on the head in a May 28 NPR interview, linking the achievements of Neil Armstrong and Edmund Hilary to a sense of purpose for the common man or woman: "What Edmund Hilary did 50 years ago changed us all, stretched us all, improved us all," said Deford. "Why? Well, at last because it was not just it (Everest) that was there; because he was there, we were," he said.

Amen, Frank. If Sir Edmund had been content to catapult a robot probe to the top of Everest, who would have cared? Nobody. But Hilary's jut-jawed smile and his jaunty "Well, we knocked the bastard off" carry human meaning across the ages, just as surely as Armstrong's "one giant leap for mankind." The fact that humans are there isn't beside the point - it is the point.

Certainly in the wake of Columbia and the CAIB report we have many questions to answer and much work to do before we return to space flight. The role and longevity of the shuttle, the configuration and utility of an Orbital Space Plane, potential near-Earth and not-so-near-to-Earth missions all must be debated and carefully thought through.

But not to go is not an option. As president Bush said in the wake of Columbia, the longing to go and explore space "is a desire written in the human heart."

Perhaps the stuff of our DNA was born in the big bang, and at some level we cannot comprehend it calls us back toward the stars. I don't know. What I do know is what people ask me when I speak in public - and it is all about people in space.

Oh, sure, they know about satellites, and yes, all that military space stuff is pretty cool. But when is the space shuttle going to fly again? When will we have someone on the moon again, or on Mars? From school kids to Rotarians, the eyes glass over. Don't tell me about the budget. Don't tell me about fixing the shuttle. Tell me when we'll have people on the Moon again, or on an asteroid, or Europa. Tell me when I can go; or my kids or my grandkids.

The space program only has meaning to people if it is about people. This is the lesson of Columbia, and this must be our memorial to her brave crew. The loss of the STS-107 crew of course was tragic, and should not be minimized. It is our duty to ensure it has meaning.

But here is what Sir Arthur Clarke wrote shortly after Columbia was lost:

"The conquest of the air took many lives -- though only a fraction of those lost during the millennia when the Oceans were opened up for navigation. As Kipling wrote: 'If blood be the price of Admiralty, Dear God we have paid in full'!

"Well, with Columbia and the earlier Apollo and Challenger tragedies, we are starting to pay the price of Astronautics, and inevitably some are asking 'Is it worthwhile?' A hundred years from now such a question will seem as absurd as criticisms directed at the importance of aviation, c1900."

In the eight months since Columbia was lost, more than 30,000 Americans have been killed on our nation's roads and highways. I have not seen a single editorial cry for the abandonment of automotive transportation. We know the risks. We get in our cars, and we go.

Space calls us. We must make no excuses. We must get in our spaceships - and go.

Elliot G. Pulham
President &
Chief Executive Officer

 		  

 

  

 

  

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