Tag: NSS

NSS Presents Gwynne Shotwell Top Award at the Online 2021 International Space Development Conference

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Gwynne Shotwell

This Year’s Virtual Conference Streams Free to All Starting Today

WASHINGTON, DC (NSS PR) — The National Space Society is proud to announce the presentation of the prestigious Wernher von Braun Memorial Award to SpaceX President and CEO Gwynne Shotwell at its annual International Space Development Conference®, which will be held virtually this year from June 24 through the 27th. Ms. Shotwell will speak on the future of SpaceX’s endeavors and on the development and exploration of cislunar space.

Shotwell joined SpaceX in 2002 when the company was in its earliest stages. She was promoted to president of the company in 2008 following her successful negotiation with NASA for the Commercial Resupply Services contract. Her responsibilities have included building the launch manifest of the company’s revolutionary Falcon 9 rocket, which has captured a large portion of global launch contracts. Shotwell was also integral to SpaceX’s successful bid to deliver astronauts to the International Space Station, which the company accomplished in 2020.

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NSS Delays Annual Conference

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WASHINGTON (NSS PR) — The National Space Society has announced that its annual International Space Development Conference (NSS ISDC®), formerly scheduled for May 28-31 in Frisco, Texas, will not be held as planned. The organization is working with its partners to review its options and make plans to support the conference moving ahead.

“The NSS is no longer holding its ISDC in May 2020, but conditions allowing, will investigate, with its partners and sponsors, the possibility of ISDC activities of different kinds later in 2020,” said Dale Skran, Chair of the NSS Executive Committee. “The health and welfare of our members and attendees is our priority.”

The ISDC is the premiere conference of its kind, bringing together well over 1000 people from around the globe each year to learn about and celebrate developments in the opening and settlement of the space frontier.

“Looking ahead to next year, we are preparing to present ISDC 2021 in Los Angeles and to welcome everyone there, and at all our upcoming events. In the meantime, we ask everyone to follow professional medical and government instructions to help maintain their health in the coming weeks and months,” Skran said.

Please visit the ISDC 2020 website at isdc2020.nss.org for updates as events develop. Information on refund status and applicability to future events will be forthcoming shortly.

Mixed Reaction to House’s NASA Authorization Bill

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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.

[See House NASA Authorization Bill Focuses on Sending Astronauts to Mars; Moon Seen as Interim Step and NASA Authorization Bill Introduced in House for details.]

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.

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NSS to Honor Apollo Astronaut Al Worden at Annual Conference

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Astronaut Al Worden

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.

For more information, see: isdc2019.nss.org.

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Bill Asks for NASA Report on Establishment of Space Resources Institute

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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.

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NSS Applauds NASA’s Support for Commercial Low Earth Orbit Space Stations

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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.

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NewSpace Business Plan Competition Set for May

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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.

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Tom Stafford Wins NSS Space Pioneer Award

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Tom Stafford (Credit: NASA)

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.

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NSS Honors NASA’s William Gerstenmaier With Space Pioneer Award

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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.

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NSS Urges Trump to Lead Lunar Base Construction

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nss_logoWASHINGTON, 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.

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NSS Sets Invite Only Space Settlement Summit in Santa Monica

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Artist Don Davis' rendering of a space colony, part of the initial NASA Ames study done in 1975.
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.

According to the summit’s buzz word heavy website:

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.

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NSS Space Settlement Campaign Supports Elon Musk’s Mars Settlement Plans

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A view from martian orbit. (Credit: SpaceX)
A view from martian orbit. (Credit: SpaceX)

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.

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SpaceX to Receive NSS Space Pioneer Award

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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)
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.

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Space Solar Power Team Breaks Through At D3 Innovation Summit

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Paul Jaffe and Peter Garretson with awards. (Credit; NSS)
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.”

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Made In Space Teams with Enterprise In Space to 3D Print First Space-Bound Airframe

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Alice Hoffman, Mike Snyder and Lynne Zielinski with EIS 3D printed model. (Credit: NSS)
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.

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