Commercial Spaceflight grows to $1.46 billion

Matthew Isakowitz
Commercial Spaceflight Federation

Total investment in the commercial human spaceflight sector has risen by 20% since January 2008, reaching a cumulative total of $1.46 billion, according to a new extensive study performed by the Tauri Group and commissioned by the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. Revenues and deposits for commercial human spaceflight services, hardware, and support services has also grown, reaching a total of $261 million for the year 2008.

The analytic study, performed by the Tauri Group of Alexandria, Virginia, was based on aggregated data from a comprehensive survey of 22 companies engaged in commercial human spaceflight activities, including most Commercial Spaceflight Federation members. The new Tauri Group study results, which updates a study conducted a year earlier, can be downloaded here [pdf].

Read the story, HERE.

Greason: It's time to base U.S. space policy on the "truth"

Robert Block
The Write Stuff
The Orlando Sentinel

"Jeff Greason is a founder of XCOR Aerospace company, the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, and one of the most outspoken members of the White House’s Review of United States Human Space Flight Plans Committee. He has said that the committee work took up about 90 hours a week since it was created last May to take hard look at NASA’s human exploration plans. He spoke to Sentinel Space Editor Robert Block by telephone from New Mexico shortly after the committee report was released in Washington on Thursday."

Here is an excerpt of the interview:

"Actually, it will be the Congress..."

NASA may outsource amid budget woes
Andy Pasztor
Wall Street Journal

"While the Obama administration is still mulling options and hasn't made any final decisions, such a move would represent a major policy shift away from decades of government-run rocket and astronaut-transportation programs such as the current space-shuttle fleet. By some estimates, the Administration's current spending blueprint for manned space exploration over the next decade is between $30 billion and $50 billon less than federal officials first projected when President George W. Bush unveiled a plan to return astronauts to the moon."

"Responding to questions, on Saturday the White House press office said the President "has confirmed his commitment to human space exploration" and is reviewing various options. "But at the end of the day, the President will make the decision, not a committee."

Read the article HERE.

Commercial Spaceflight Federation creates science advisory panel for sub-orbital flight

John Gedmark

Washington, D.C. – The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is pleased to announce the creation of the Suborbital Applications Researchers Group (SARG), composed of experienced scientists, researchers, and educators dedicated to furthering the research and education potential of suborbital reusable launch vehicles under development by the commercial spaceflight sector.

The panel is chaired by Dr. S. Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute, a space scientist who previously served as head of the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters.

The members of the Suborbital Applications Researchers Group (SARG) are aiming to increase awareness of commercial suborbital vehicles in the science and R&D communities, to work with policymakers to ensure that payloads can have easy access to these vehicles, and to further develop ideas for the uses of these vehicles for science, engineering, and education missions.

Read the full text of the announcement HERE.