There have been sharply differing reaction from industry and advocacy groups to the House draft of a NASA authorization act that largely rejects the Trump Administration’s plan to land astronauts on the moon by 2024 and establish a permanent presence there. Instead, a moon landing would be used as an interim step to sending astronauts to Mars. Commercial participation in these missions would be limited.
Below are statements by the Aerospace Industries Association, Coalition for Deep Space Exploration, Commercial Spaceflight Federation, and National Space Society.
NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has also weighed in here.
WASHINGTON (NSS PR) — The National Space Society (NSS) has named astronaut Al Worden the 2019 recipient of NSS’ Space Pioneer Award for Historic Space Achievement. Worden flew to the Moon on Apollo 15.
The prestigious award will be presented to Mr. Worden at the Society’s 38th annual International Space Development Conference (ISDC®), to be held in the Washington DC area at the Sheraton Pentagon City Hotel from June 6-9, 2019. NSS invites the public to come meet, interact and learn from Al Worden and attend his award ceremony.
A vision of a future Moon base that could be produced and maintained using 3D printing. (Credit: RegoLight, visualisation: Liquifer Systems Group, 2018)
by Douglas Messier Managing Editor
A bill seeking a report on whether NASA should establish a space resources institute has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Axiom commercial space station design. (Credit: Axiom Space)
WASHINGTON, DC (NSS PR) — On March 30th, 2018, NASA delivered to Congress the “International Space Station Transition Report” taking the first step toward a gapless transition from the government owned and operated International Space Station (ISS) to commercial Low Earth Orbit (LEO) space stations. This report was issued in response to a request from Congress in the NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2017. NSS and its partners in the Alliance for Space Development worked hard over the last few years to ensure that this request was included in the Act, and NSS applauds the resulting report.
GOES-16 captured this view of the moon as it looked above the surface of the Earth on January 15. Like earlier GOES satellites, GOES-16 will use the moon for calibration. (Credits: NOAA/NASA)
LOS ANGELES (Center for Space Commerce & Finance PR) — Today, the The Center for Space Commerce and Finance announced a call for competitors for a regional NewSpace Business Plan Competition being held in conjunction with the 2018 International Space Development Conference (ISDC) on May 26, in Los Angeles. In a “Shark Tank” style competition, startups will present their business plans in front of a panel of investors and the ISDC audience, for a chance to win a cash prize.
WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — Lieutenant General Thomas P. Stafford, USAF, Ret, is the winner of the National Space Society’s 2017 Space Pioneer Award in the Historic Space Achievement category. This award covers his service in the Gemini, Apollo and Apollo-Soyuz programs. In particular, the flight of Gemini 9A on June 3, 1966, was 51 years ago.
The National Space Society invites the public to join them in presenting the Pioneer Award to General Stafford on Saturday, May 27, 2017 at the 36th NSS International Space Development Conference® (isdc.nss.org/2017). The conference will be held in St Louis, Missouri, at the Union Station Hotel, running from May 25-29, 2017. (more…)
WASHINGTON, DC (NSS PR) — William H. Gerstenmaier, Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC, is the recipient of the National Space Society’s 2017 Space Pioneer Award in the Non-Legislative Government Service category.
This award recognizes Mr. Gerstenmaier’s service as Associate Administrator as well as his dynamic career with NASA, which spans 40 years!
The award will be presented on Saturday, May 27, 2017 at the National Space Society’s 2017 International Space Development Conference® (isdc.nss.org/2017). This will be the 36th ISDC® and will be held in St Louis, Missouri, at the Union Station Hotel. The conference is open to the public and will run from May 25-29, 2017.
WASHINGTON, DC, November 30, 2016 (NSS PR) — On Saturday, October 8th, the National Space Society (NSS) organized a workshop directed at recommending a space policy to the new Administration. Eleven thought leaders from government, industry, and academia gathered in a fruitful collaboration to produce a set of five recommendations.
Steve Jurvetson, a partner at the well-known Silicon Valley Sand Hill Road venture capital firm DFJ hosted the meeting at the DFJ offices. NSS has submitted the resulting white paper to the Trump Transition Team. The paper can be viewed at The paper can be viewed at http://www.nss.org/legislative/positions/NSS-DFJ-Workshop-Recommendations-Nov-2016.pdf.
Artist Don Davis’ rendering of a space colony, part of the initial NASA Ames study done in 1975.
The National Space Society (NSS) is having a two-day, invitation-only Space Settlement Summit at a swanky hotel in Santa Monica, Calif., in early January.
The $1,000 per ticket gathering will take place at the Shutters on the Beach Hotel on Jan. 10-11. Rooms at the luxury hotel start from $468 and go up to $3,230 for a bedroom suite.
The National Space Society is convening the Space Settlement Summit to bring together the leading people, companies and organizations that are making space settlement a reality. Participation in this event will be by invitation only and is limited to a very select group of people who will set the cultural message of near term Space Settlement and those who will build and finance it.
The objective of the event is to show the synergistic in-space ecosystem that is emerging; to facilitate a convergence of interests and opportunities amongst the key players; and to identify critical issues along the path to Space Settlement.
This summit will bring together not only the companies and organizations that are charting this new frontier, but also the thought leaders who are constantly innovating new ways for Space Settlement to flourish in the immediate future.
Convergence. Synergistic. Ecosystem. Thought leaders. That odd use of the British English word amongst. Still not buzzy enough. How about this: Could this event be a game changing, paradigm shifting pivot that will lead to an exponential explosion in humanity’s conquest of space?
Invites have already been sent out, so if you haven’t received yours, consider yourself either out of luck or fortunate, depending upon how you view NSS and the summit.
WASHINGTON, DC, September 27, 2016 (NSS PR) — At today’s meeting of the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Guadalajara, Mexico, Elon Musk, CEO of Space X, announced his bold plan to build a city on Mars. For over 40 years the National Space Society has led advocacy for space settlement.
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket is seen as it launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base Space Launch Complex 4 East with the Jason-3 spacecraft onboard, , Sunday, Jan. 17, 2016, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. Jason-3, an international mission led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), will help continue U.S.-European satellite measurements of global ocean height changes. (Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls)
WASHINGTON, D.C., May 5 (NSS PR) — SpaceX is the winner of the National Space Society’s 2016 Space Pioneer Award for Science and Engineering. This award recognizes the company’s recent major achievement, the historic first landing of the Falcon 9 rocket on Dec 21, 2015, which was a major step toward fulfilling one of the major “holy grail” quests of the space community – reusability.
Paul Jaffe and Peter Garretson with awards. (Credit; NSS)
WASHINGTON, DC, March 7, 2016 (NSS PR) — The National Space Society congratulates the Space Solar Power D3 (SSPD3) team on sweeping the awards in a March 2 multi-departmental competition to find promising new technology ideas that could simultaneously advance diplomacy, defense and development (D3). The SSPD3 team proposal was titled “Carbon-Free Energy for Global Resilience and International Goodwill.”
Alice Hoffman, Mike Snyder and Lynne Zielinski with EIS 3D printed model. (Credit: NSS)
WASHINGTON, D.C., December 18, 2015 (NSS PR) — Enterprise In Space (EIS), an international project of the non-profit National Space Society, is excited to announce a partnership with Made In Space, Inc. to extensively use 3D printed components in a spacecraft to be launched into Earth orbit. This educational spacecraft will be the first real spacecraft bearing the “Enterprise” name. Once in orbit, the NSS Enterprise will not only be the first 3D printed airframe in space, but it will also carry more than 100 passive and active student experiments into space and back to Earth.
WASHINGTON, DC (NSS PR) — On November 25, 2015, President Obama signed the landmark Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (CSLCA). NSS congratulates President Obama and the Senate and House leadership for their hard work in hammering out a compromise between the previously passed House and Senate versions.
“It is hard to over-emphasize the importance of the CSLCA,” said Dale Skran, NSS Executive Vice President. “There are a lot of excellent provisions in this legislation, and we want to thank House Majority Leader McCarthy for guiding the final version to the President’s desk.”
1. Monday, August 10, 2015; : 2-3:30 PM PDT (5-6:30 PM EDT, 4-5:30 PM CDT): We welcome JEREMY STRAUB and several of his students to discuss their research on a wide range of space related topics including cybersecurity for spacecraft (an intrusion detection system and cryptography technique) to an attitude determination and control system component to image processing.
2. Tuesday, August 10, 2015, 7 PM PDT (10 PM EDT, 9 PM CDT): We welcome RUSSELL COX, CEO & Founder, The Lunar Initiatives. Seewww.LunarInitiatives.com.
3. Friday, August 14, 2015, 9:30-11 AM PDT (12:30-2 PM EDT, 11:30 AM – 1 PM CDT): We welcome back CHARLES MILLER to discuss the new Return to the Moon concept and architecture as described in the new report, “Economic Assessment and Systems Analysis of an Evolvable Lunar Architecture that Leverages Commercial Space Capabilities and Public-Private-Partnerships.” See www.nss.org/docs/EvolvableLunarArchitecture.pdf for further information.
4. Sunday, August 16:,12-1:30 PM PDT, (3-4:30 PM EDT, 2-3:30 PM CDT). Welcome to our OPEN LINES program. All space & STEM calls welcome. First time callers welcome.
