Page 42 of 55 - Previous page

November 4, 2003 - The ATFE and its contractor, Applied Research Associates, have been purchasing high power rocket motors, rocket kits, launch rails, electrical launchers and other items to conduct tests at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. The purpose of the tests is to provide proof that high power rockets can be used to shoot down commercial aircraft during landings and takeoffs. The tests will be documented by videotape. It is expected that the video tape will be released during a press conference for maximum media exposure.

The ATFE plans were first discovered by a high power rocket vendor who recognized the name of ATFE agent, David Shatzer, as he purchased launch rail equipment. Mr. Shatzer has been traveling across the country purchasing other high power rocket supplies using the cover story that he is a high power rocket hobbyist. He changes the story with respect to who he will be flying with depending on his geographical location. Applied Research Associates has purchased at least 40 J350 rocket motors and large numbers of rocket kits from different suppliers.

It was reported to ARSA that Applied Research Associates employees along with ATFE agents were to conduct tests yesterday at Hill Air Force Base using a target drone to simulate a commercial aircraft. The high power rockets were to be launched out of a parked van. The rockets were going to be launched one at a time at the drone as well as several at a time. The rockets did not contain explosive warheads. It is not known whether the drone was rigged to simulate an explosion as a high power rocket passed by.

The information in this story was made available to Senator Mike Enzi's staff. It is not know at this time, what action, if any, Senator Enzi plans to take. Watch for further updates on this story as it develops.

from ARSAnews

• iz

---

Comments

I found this via HobbySpace. Apparently Scaled Composites has fixed the stability problems with SpaceShipOne. To test the modifications they ran a wind tunnel test. The reason private space will succeed in the long run is that Burt did his wind tunnel tests this way while NASA does it this way.

---

Comments

I just had the most amazing sushi! I'm in Tokyo for the week and a co-worker decided that we should all get up at 3:00 a.m. to go watch the fish auctions at the Tsukiji Fish Market. I'd never seen such a diversity of seafood in my life. Squid with red ink instead of black. Clams with feet almost a foot long. Four foot long fish of various types flopping around on the floor. And then you go next door and there a little lady in a booth selling rice balls with a wonderful teriyaki filling inside. And the sushi restaurants were everywhere, and open at 5:00 a.m. The fatty tuna literally melted in your mouth. The eel was freshly cleaned from a tub full of live eels.

---

Comments

the airtime schedule of Discovery Channels “Rocket Challenge” coverage of LDRS is now available online or at http://tinyurl.com/sabe

---

Comments

Posting will be very light until 11/5. I'm on business travel for Auto-ID stuff. I'll be in Palo Alto, Tokyo and Springfield, AK. I think I hear that old Sesame Street tune, “Which of these is not like the other one”, in the background.

---

Comments

(sci.space.policy by way of HobbySpace) Randall Clague of XCOR posted this message on sci.space.policy stating that the AVR (aviation part of the FAA) and the AST (the rocket part of the FAA) have agreed on a division of regulation based on trajectory instead of whether or not the vehicle had wings or not (or other rather silly ways of dividing it up). As Randall says, “What this means is that the same vehicle can be an experimental aircraft on Monday, a launch vehicle on Tuesday, and an experimental aircraft again on Wednesday. Which it is depends on how you fly it”. Thus making life sane for RLVs that spend large amounts of their testing lifetimes in what would be considered atmospheric flights.

---

Comments

p. Several months ago I found the web site for the International Association of Space Entrepreneurs. I regularly checked in to see if anything had happened but for most of the summer nothing seemed to be moving. I recently checked back in to find that the web site had been updated and that IASE was hosting a speakers series that started with John Higgenbotham of SpaceVest back in July. In order to find out more I decided to give IASE's founding director, Guillermo Sohnlein, a call.

p. According to Guillermo, IASE's goal is “to promote global entrepreneurship in the space industry through concerted efforts in business, public policy, and education.” Their first step is to form a 501©(6) membership trade association with these short term tasks:

• attracting experienced business people to space related markets
• help entrepreneurs locate capital by bringing those entrepreneurs to capital markets that don't normally consider space businesses
• lobbying governments on behalf of the industry for a business friendly regulatory changes (taxes, liability, regulatory, etc) through PACs and other methods.
• educational foundation for entrepreneurial space development by targeting schools and organizations that have strong aerospace and entrepreneurial programs that need cross discipline development resources.

p. One important point is that IASE will not focus on any particular segment of the market. IASE breaks the industry up into 4 segments:

• Governmental: companies that act as contractors to existing DoD/NASA space programs.
• Commercialization: companies that take technology developed by government space programs and turn them into commercial products (GPS, foam beds, etc)
• Mainstream: companies who's products aren't necessarily about space but that use space technologies to provide products (telecom, remote sensing, satellite radio, etc)
• Pioneers: companies that are creating new industries (space tourism)

p. While each segment may have different customers, they all tend to have the same problems of access to capital, long term ROI, and high initial capitalization requirements. IASE will attempt to mix these industries up at its events in order to create cross pollenization between the various segments.

p. In addition to the trade association, IASE will also be developing an economic development consulting subsidiary that will help communities that have some space related resource (such as a NASA center or high tech resource such as Mojave airport) better integrate that resource with the entrepreneurs. Guillermo even thought it possible to provide that service to virtual communities such as space advocacy groups looking to integrate more with the business community.

p.

At the end of the interview I asked Guillermo what he though the number one problem was that he'd like IASE to fix. His response was that the industry as it stands is populated by enthusiasts. What he'd like to see is the industry switch to being populated by business people in much the same way that the personal computing industry switched in the 80s from being a mix of home brew computing clubs to being a trillion dollar business run by business people.He made the point that nothing really happens unless there is an economic reason to do so. And right now there is no work being done by business to develop the economic reason for space development. According to Guillermo, if IASE can help change that then he will have considered it a success.

p.

IASE will be having its official public launch on October 30th at 6:00 pm in Herndon, VA. Given Guillermo's goals I think IASE will have a lot to offer. If you can make it to the event I think it would be worth your time (and if you go drop me a note!). If you would like to keep up with IASE drop by their website at http://www.spaceentrepreneurs.org/ and sign up for their quarterly newsletter.

---

Comments

Adam Przybyla runs POLSEK which is a Polish space advocacy blog. Adam has an article on the Second Galileo Software Engineering Workshop GSOFT 2003 which is currently going on. What caught his eye was this section of the agenda: bq. Technical Session 5: Open Source Software - Open Standards (Chairman: Gérard Bulsa/Maxime Perrotin)

16:00 - 16:20 “The Rationale for Open Source Software and Open Standards” (Peter Claes, ESA/GPO)

16:20 - 16:50 “Montavista Linux RTOS for Galileo” (Peter Van Ackeren, Montavista)

16:50 - 17:20 “Experiences with the Use and Selection of Open Source Components” (Ir. Marco Nijdam, West Consulting BV)

17:20 - 17:45 Round Table (Chaired by ESA/GPO)

Update: while we're both chatting on IRC, he found some interesting presentations from the 2003 DASIA conference that is held by the EuroSpace association of European Space Industry. Many of the presentations are for aerospace software projects that are being run using Open Source techniques.

---

Comments

While looking through some of my older bookmarks, I noticed that the International Association of Space Entrepreneurs (IASE) has a new look to it. I haven't run across anything they've done in other fora so I'm curious if anyone has any experience with them.

---

Comments

October 6, 2003 - A grassroots campaign started last week to put a series of commericals on the Discovery channel starting in November. Discovery will air a program called “Rocket Challenge”. They spent over $1 million producing the special on rocketry and LDRS held this summer. Frank Uroda from Public Missiles is promoting the idea of airing three 15 second commercials during each airing of the program. The program will air six times. It is estimated that the program will reach six million homes.

According to Mr. Uroda, “In a nut shell, the 3 hour show "Rocket Challenge” will air twice on Nov. 3, three times on Nov. 10, and once on Nov. 17. We cannot pick and choose which shows or hours to run our ad. We must buy one 15 second spot in each hour of the show and for every time the show is run. The full package for 18 insertions was originally $93,000 but after some major negotiation between me and the accounts manager, I got the rock bottom price of $68,000 (to be paid in advance).“

The advertisements will direct interested viewers to a web site tentatively called, "FlyRockets.com.” Pat Gordzelik, a newly elected TRA board member and a group of individuals have joined Mr. Uroda in trying to pull off this grassroots effort. Mr. Gordzelik was able to pursuade the NAR and TRA boards to support the effort after extensive discussions. “I was able to get the support of the Tripoli BoD and finally NAR to support this. My analogy of a infomercial that "never asked for the order” would not get the phones to ring, finally swung em over.“, stated Mr. Gordzelik.

He further stated that "We have developed a plan for the ad using an astronaut to endorse rocketry as a whole. It will be 18 fifteen second ads at a cost of 68k. We are also working on attaining outside corporate sponsorship. Frank is developing a raffle website to garner funds from interested individuals. The whole plan will be formally introduced probably this weekend as time is short.”

Frank Uroda stated, “Yes it is a big risk and a lot of money. But wars are not won by small, incremental moves. It is the bold strokes that win the wars. We are in a war now, actually a battle of attrition. ItÂ’s a battle we are sure to lose. The regulators have nothing but time and money on their side. We have neither. We have but one choice, grow or die. There is still time to do this but now it must be done by the organizations since all of us manufacturers are on the verge of bankruptcy.”

A web site has been set up to take donations for the ad campaign. Vendors can also donate prizes for the Mega raffle to be held to support the campaign. The web site address is : http://www.saverocketrynow.org

[ reposted from <a HREF=

“http://www.space-rockets.com/arsanews#ad1”>ARSA ]

• iz

---

Comments

Next page