NewSpace 2012 Conference
NASA Leadership Roundtable
- Rebecca Keiser (Moderator) — Associate Deputy Administrator for Strategy and Policy, NASA
- Robert Cabana — Director, NASA Kennedy Space Center
- Ramon Lugo — Director, NASA Glenn Research Center
- Ellen Ochoa — Deputy Director, NASA Johnson Space Center
- Pete Worden — Director, NASA Ames Research Center
Bob Cabana (KSC)
- Have a lot of excess capacity at KSC
- Boeing deal for one of shuttle processing facilities for CST-100
- Company using and maintaining tooling
- trying to make it a 21st century spaceport
- Wants KSC to have NASA and commercial missions and suborbital flights out of the shuttle landing facility
- 21st century spaceport upgrades are beneficial to NASA and to commercial partners
- NASA in negotiations with Stratolaunch to fly out of KSC
- Centers are learning how to use Space Act Agreements better and are learning from each other
- Need to take it to the next step – not just about a few people going to space on a big govt. program but more people
- commercial suborbital similar to biplane rides in 20′s
- early aviation only for the very rich at the beginning
- in the last part of the curve before it goes exponential
- form partnerships in which there is clear communication and not in an adversarial but partnership – we’re all in it together
Pete Worden (Ames)
- Ames working on quantum computers – want to have one of the first quantum computers
- Ames partners on synthetic biology with J. Craig Venter – crucial to being able to live in space
- if you want to go to space, talk to JSC and KSC – to get back, talk to Ames
- Ames and the other field centers do research work and develop crucial technologies
- Ames provides a location for people to do work – plane – fuel cell – turned into multi- billion business
- The technology of this century is biotech
- Gene expression is fundamentally different in space – will tell us a lot about how life works and how to make new products
- Will be a major breath through area – space biology, specifically fundamental development
- NASA needs to succeed in mid-wiving new commercial space industry
- NASA can’t afford to do the things it wants to do – moon, Mars, etc. – without building up a more competitive commercial sector
Ramon Lugo (NASA Glenn)
- 2 year process in which center looked at how to do commercial space better
- used to think business development was easy — learned otherwise
- about 16 projects ongoing
- aerospace is a key areas where we have a positive balance of trade
- need to get technology out there to help transform the way we live
- bring in the staff attorneys on Space Act Agreements at very early in the process – a lot of deals run into trouble if they are brought in late
Ellen Ochoa (NASA JSC)
- Momentum has started to grow
- Enormous amount of progress just in the last few months
Q. What has been the biggest obstacle to these commercial efforts?
Pete Worden:
- “Headquarters. Congress. The White House.”
- A lot of bureaucracy, a lot of laws and some good reasons for it
- Space Act Agreement is an incredibly powerful tool
- Space Act Agreement: If it’s not prohibited by law, you can do it
- Space Act Agreement: Given holes you can drive a lot of trucks through
- Now a set of rules at HQ called the Worden Rules – more oversight of SAAs
- “Ames in particular, We’re in Silicon Valley and Silicon Valley is in us.”
- Go from “no, because…” to “yes, if….”
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