Nyack, NY - The Space Frontier Foundation will host the annual NewSpace Business Plan Competition during its NewSpace 2012 Conference at the NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley on July 26-28. The competition helps entrepreneurs creating startups and firms that develop problem-solving and game-changing technologies in support of the NewSpace space industry.

As many as 10 finalists will present their plans to a distinguished panel of judges, featuring venture capitalists, angel investors and business development leaders. They’ll receive professional feedback and exposure to the public, press and investor community. The winner will awarded a $100,000 Grand Prize funded by a grant from NASA Ames. This grant also funds a $10,000 Second Prize.

This Competition is seeking entries from seed, startup or early-growth firms from the following fields:

Entrepreneurial space: Those firms directly involved in launch systems hardware technology and supporting infrastructure, including data acquisition, communications, exotic fuels, space suits, flight safety, etc.

Space-related: Process engineering, power systems, bioregenerative systems, tourism, media, software and other supportive solutions.

Space-scalable (New!): Technologies primarily developed to solve problems here on Earth for commercial benefit and profit, but are also scalable to solve key long range space problems when the demand ultimately exists. Technologies that help make the settlement of the space frontier a reality. This could include biotechnology, nanotechnology, medicine, radiation mitigation, smart materials, alternative energy or next-gen IT hardware, among many other possibilities.

Regardless of niche, applicants must be able to explain why their product or service helps with the economic development of space. Entries must have at least 51% US-citizen ownership to qualify.

This competition wishes to assist and showcase new startup and expanding firms that demonstrate both the ability to make money and contribute to the commercial development of space, advancing the NewSpace movement.

Companies wishing to participate are asked to submit an “Intent to Compete” by April 20th, 2012. 3-5 page “Executive Summaries” must be submitted by May 18th, 2012, in PDF format to businessplan@spacefrontier.org. Entries must adhere to the parameters outlined in the competition rules to be considered. Finalists will be announced publicly on June 8th. Competition details and rules can be found at www.newspacebpc.com.

Companies selected to present at NewSpace 2012 will be required to arrive no later than 9AM Wednesday, July 25th for a 2-day “Boot-Camp.”  This includes presentation dry-runs, and practical guidance and mentoring from investors and business professionals. Final presentations in front of the judges will be on the morning of July 27th, with the winners announced the evening of Saturday, July 28th, at the NewSpace Gala.

NewSpace 2012 is a single-track conference focusing on entrepreneurial space activities. Sessions not only provide interesting presentations, but also to generate lively discussions among NewSpace entrepreneurs, established space industry leaders, NASA and military space experts, regulators, space policy advocates, the investment community and anyone else who wants to ensure humanity has a bright and abundant future in the space frontier.

Registration information and programming details will launch soon at newspace.spacefrontier.org.

Is Romney Already Being Trapped By Unsustainable Space Interests?

Jacksonville, FL - During last night’s Republican presidential debate, Governor Mitt Romney stated that “a moonbase would be an enormous expense,” and later stated that if someone had come to him saying they had wanted to spend a few hundred billion dollars to put a colony on the moon, he would’ve said “You’re fired.”

Today, it was revealed that former NASA Administrator Mike Griffin is member of the Romney Space Policy Advisory Group. This is the same NASA Administrator who was the chief architect of an unaffordable and unsustainable plan to return humans to the Moon that would have cost about $200 Billion.

We can only assume that Gov. Romney did not know who Mike Griffin is or what he did as NASA Administrator when he asked Griffin to serve in his group of space policy leaders. At the time of its cancellation, the Augustine Committee, a national committee composed of military, civilian and commercial space leaders, concluded that Mike Griffin’s strategy would only work if NASA received a $3 Billion per year budget increase to $22 Billion. This would result in a total cost that was almost $200 Billion.

“Confronted with Mike Griffin’s plan to return to the Moon, Mitt Romney would have fired Griffin and rightly so,” said Will Watson, Executive Director of the Space Frontier Foundation.

While Romney has stated that he wants more discussion with a diversified group of professional space people to determine the future of America’s space program, the SFF is concerned that his current collection tells a very different story. It raises serious questions in the minds of space activists about whether Governor Romney fully understands the issues. Sometimes personnel reflects policy.

“While Governor Romney stated he would like to have much more commercial space participation in his government, only 1 of the 8 people on his group is a serious and credible commercial space leader,” continued Mr. Watson. “We fear that he is already being circled and trapped by unsustainable space interests.”
We are encouraged that Governor Romney realizes the importance of space. At this time however, we strongly urge Governor Romney to cast a much wider net for space policy advisors.

SFF is Encouraged by the Increasing Support for Space Settlement

Cocoa, FL – The Space Frontier Foundation (SFF) was excited to hear a proposal for space settlement described by a major presidential candidate on the national stage as opening the space frontier to human settlement is the mission of the SFF. During yesterday’s Town Hall speech on the space coast, Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich presented a grand and practical plan for space built on previous American models such as the transcontinental railroad and airline industry. The SFF applauds Speaker Gingrich for embracing space settlement and is celebrating that support for space settlement has grown to include large parts of NASA, the current administration, and Speaker Gingrich.

Gingrich’s proposal includes several goals, all of which aim to have people permanently living and working in space. These include the first permanent base on the moon and legislation allowing it to petition to become a state when 13,000 Americans are living there, constant commercial activities in LEO for science, tourism and manufacturing designed to create a robust industry, and a continuous propulsion system in space to get humans to Mars quickly by the end of 2020.

“I wanted every young American to say to themselves, ‘I could be one of those 13,000 people. I could be a pioneer. I need to study science and math and engineering. I need to learn how to be a technician. I can be a part of building a bigger, better future. I can actually go out and live the future looking at the solar system and be part of a generation of courageous people who do something big and bold and heroic,’” said Gingrich.

He plans to achieve these laudable goals by using technology practically, such as sharing space vehicles between commercial, military, and NASA. He also calls for enabling an airport-like system to handle 5-8 launches a day. Gingrich strongly promoted the use of prizes to encourage the entrepreneurial skills of America, conceivably settling space even faster.

“I disagree with Speaker Gingrich on far too many issues to ever endorse him, but I support his ideas for embracing the space frontier.   I also commend him for being one of the few Republicans to support President Obama’s NASA budget proposals, as the president tried to expand NASA from exploring space to settling it,” said SFF Keep the Promise project manager Aaron Oesterle. “He, like President Obama and me, understand that every dollar put into human spaceflight MUST be directed towards space settlement.”

The goal of space settlement has now been endorsed on a national stage by NASA’s Review of Human Space Flight Plans Committee, implicitly enabled by President Obama past NASA budget proposals, and has been explicitly stated by a major presidential candidate. Those pushing for space settlement should feel emboldened, as there is historical precedent for this path and leaders from both sides of the political spectrum are publicly rallying for a diversified space industry focused on settlement.

“Today Speaker Gingrich laid out a bold vision for America’s future in space,” said Will Watson, the Space Frontier Foundation’s Executive Director.  “It wasn’t a plan for NASA, or for a few astronauts and aerospace contractors, but for all Americans.  Although the Space Frontier Foundation is non-partisan, we are emboldened, and we strongly urge all the candidates to lay out equally powerful visions for America and the Space Frontier.”

To watch a video of the speech, visit C-Span.org at http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/SpacePolic.

NSRC Forums Help Revolutionize Low-Cost Access to Space

Palo Alto, CA - The Southwest Research Institute’s Next-Generation Suborbital Research Conference brings together researchers from academia, industry and government to find dramatic solutions for reaching space. Held in Palo Alto, CA on February 27-29, 2012, this conference informs and listens to the suborbital community on how to increase opportunities for experimentation, education, market expansion and technology development. The Space Frontier Foundation recommends that those in our community looking to support and expand the usage of suborbital space register today. Advanced registration ends February 10th and is available at nsrc.swri.org.

Event Highlights

• Opening session with former X-15 pilot Neil Armstrong, Virgin Galactic Chief Test Pilot David Mackay, XCOR Aerospace COO Andrew Nelson, Challenger Center Founding Director June Scobee Rodgers, SwRI Associate Vice President Dr. Alan Stern, and NASA Ames Center Director Dr. Pete Worden.

• A chance to win a free suborbital flight on the XCOR Lynx Mark 1!

• Engaging panels on microgravity, planetary and life sciences, markets and policy, technology, public outreach and flight training with a wide range of experts active in the industry.

• Special registration rates for students and the opportunity for sponsors to view resumes.

• Anchor Keynote by FAA Commercial Space Transportation Associate Administrator Dr. George Nield.

• NASA Flight Opportunities Workshop and Reception.

• A vibrant exhibition hall where you can view scientific posters and discover the latest news from suborbital companies and academic institutions.

Many of the current leaders in the space industry and your colleagues are scheduled to speak. To view the full agenda, visit nsrc.swri.org.

“I’m dreamin’ of a Spaaaace Christmas…”

(Well, that’s how we think it should go)

Some of our volunteers want nothing more than to see how a lit menorah looks in zero-G. Others eagerly await the problem of how to convince their kids that Santa can make it to the Mars settlements. They also wonder, “When do you celebrate the New Year in another orbit?” Such dreams of space settlement are at the core of what we do at the Space Frontier Foundation and our many hard-working volunteers deserve to have this dream come true.

Flame in microgravity image courtesy of NASA

This holiday please give a gift to our volunteers and yourself by donating to the Space Frontier Foundation. You’ll be supporting a future where we have to figure out how to get a Christmas tree to the moon. A future where all science teachers are expected to have experienced spaceflight, buying a spaceline ticket is done on Orbitz, and ‘asteroid miner’ is a common job description. So after hanging up your geeky space ornaments (we admit to having several), visit spacefrontier.org/donate.

As a part of the SFF network, you also wish for space activities to increase so ask your friends and family to donate as a gift to you! It is an easy and unique solution for those last-minute shoppers looking to avoid the boring, terrestrial malls! It also makes a good gift for your space-enthusiastic friends.

Don’t forget that all donations are tax-deductible for 2011. With Congress cutting funding to commercial crew programs, why give them more tax money to divert? Spend it at the SFF instead, and we’ll keep working hard to support policy and budgets that get us permanently into space.

Make our holiday wishes come true and donate now. Tax-deductible donations can be made at spacefrontier.org/donate.

Thank You and Happy Holidays from all of us at the Space Frontier Foundation!

This critical move is a win for common sense over outdated business practices.

Nyack, NY - The Space Frontier Foundation (SFF) congratulates NASA on the smart decision to continue utilizing Space Act Agreements (SAA) over the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR). Many feared that the pressure to use the restrictive FAR contracts would be the death of the Commercial Crew Development program (CCDev). With this victory the program, and America’s ability to reach the ISS, gets a second chance. This positive evolution of how NASA works with vehicle contractors will boost the competitive development of multiple launch providers and the NewSpace economy. The goal of achieving low cost, reliable access to space is simply better for it.

The decision by NASA came down on December 15, and stated that it was necessary to extend the SAAs with several commercial crew developers to properly utilize the limited CCDev budget. While there had been pressure to switch to the outdated and confining FARs, CCDev narrowly defied death once again when the more efficient and competitive contract solution won out. SAAs are the only option in light of the severely decreased budget of $406 million (from $850 million). For a brief recap of this development and the history of CCDev, check out The Daily Tech.

The SFF has been working behind the scenes to promote CCDev and SAAs. We sincerely thank the many other companies and individuals that played a crucial part in preventing FARs from ruining CCDev. We support their continued work to protect NASA’s partnership with the CCDev companies. We hope this victory will inspire the Blue Origin, SpaceX, Boeing Co. and Sierra Nevada Corp. teams in their innovative work to get NASA astronauts to space. Remember, it costs $63 million per seat to buy a ride in a Soyuz capsule!

The Foundation made great strides in 2011 and the plan for 2012 is in place.

We just need your support to make it happen.

If the Space Frontier Foundation is making a difference, it should be measurable and visible for all to see. We should be able to hang our hat on it. When our business associates, friends and family ask us, “What does that Foundation do anyway? Why are you involved with them?” we should be able to fire a list of things back and be proud. I present to you a partial list on what we’ve been up to this past year and a couple of other things we’re working on that I’m excited about:

Teachers In Space: Our goal is to have thousands of astronaut teachers sharing their spaceflight experiences and inspiring the future of the space industry workforce. The results are showing. We’ve got our 7 “Pathfinder” teachers trained and ready to go to space as soon as the spacecraft is ready. We’ve held 5 workshops for a carefully selected group of 110 teachers across the country and presented curriculum that they could take back to their classes. We also have workshops planned for 2012 in the fields of suborbital aviation & astronautics, suborbital experimental flight design and space medicine & human factors. One day soon we’ll be able to say that we’ve flown 1000 teachers into space, developed a program and curriculum that those teachers can use once they’re back in the classroom, and that curriculum has been taught to 100,000 students!

NewSpace Conference: In July, we held the best NewSpace Conference to-date with approximately 400 attendees, including the most influential thinkers in the NewSpace industry. Our goal for the annual project is to push the industry to new heights and to let everyone know that NewSpace is here to stay, which I’d say this conference definitely accomplished. For the first time, we had the leaders of NASA Headquarters and 4 NASA Centers in attendance. Our message of a free space enterprise is being heard loud and clear, and cooperation between civil space and private space is now being talked about freely. Unfortunately, it hasn’t turned into pro-settlement legislation quite yet, so we have our work cut out for us. Together with your support, we won’t quit though until it does.

Business Plan Competition: The Foundation is leading the charge in supporting the creation of entrepreneurial space companies. Altius Space Machines, Celestial Circuits and Final Frontier Design saw this first-hand when we awarded them a 1st place prize of $25,000, 2nd place prize of $5000, and 3rd place prize of $2500 respectively to get their businesses off the ground. Though this was the most we’ve given out to date, it’s not enough and we hope to be able to give out even more in future years.

So, would you say that 2011 has been a success? Would you like to see us do more? We have the plan in place to do more. Here’s a couple of things in the pipeline that I’m excited to see:

Litmus Test: The goal here is to have a tool to compare all future space-related legislation to the Foundation’s vision for the future of space. Questions like “Does this policy use the resources of space in a smart, sustainable way?” or “Does the oversight of this policy have a reliable framework so that it’s properly executed?” will make it perfectly clear in future years why the Foundation is for or against a certain piece of legislation.

Quarterly Report: A public report we can post on the website quarterly that includes everything the Foundation is currently up to. This will keep supporters like you informed on our progress, where we need further assistance, and new projects. It may seem like a simple addition but regularly producing a comprehensive and professional report takes significant time and effort to coordinate all our project management teams. This snapshot of the Foundation’s activities will be useful in the years to come when looking back on the progress we’ve made.

Space Architecture: We’re currently strengthening our relationship with the space architecture community, which began with space architecture-related exhibits at NewSpace 2011. This is just scratching the surface of what this partnership could accomplish and we’re hoping to take this to the next level in 2012. After all, what’s the use in focusing all our energy on spaceships if these vessels have nowhere to park?

We need your help to keep moving these projects forward. Please donate today if you want your kid to be taught by an astronaut teacher, to support the creation of new entrepreneurial space businesses, or to see pro-settlement legislation. The Space Frontier Foundation can make it happen.

Tax-deductible donations can be made at spacefrontier.org/donate or by clicking the Donate Now tab above.

Dear Mars Science Laboratory team,
Thank you!

In the middle of a completely absurd debate about how much U.S. taxpayer money should be put into the pockets of congressional donors in the name of not building government rockets that will not support the opening of space in any way, you are going exploring.

How crazy is that? It’s hard to get my head around the idea that you are in the same space program as the people who are willing to kill our exploration and opening of space in the name of control, constituency and, of course, cash.

Indeed, it has often seemed over the years that there are two government space programs.

One, like you, is bold and experimental in its style and approach — and yet building on its legacy to push outwards the boundaries of the known and drive back the edges of the frontier in science, knowledge and technology. Each step forward is into unknown territory, often simply guided by best guesses. This sometimes leads to higher costs and yes, even delays, but in the end there is always forward and outward motion. This is what the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) represents. Experimental, explorational science. Learning about Mars as a new world. Discovering new things that will tell us about the history of our solar system, help reveal the secrets of life and continue blazing the trail that may someday be traveled by the rest of us. You are NASA as Lewis and Clark or James Cook, and you make me proud.

And like our commercial sector, you give me and the millions of other Americans who are paying for this something for our money. You give us a product. New worlds explored, new knowledge, new technologies, and oh yes, you inspire us — clear payback for our national investment — usually by doing things that would not happen any other way. Yes, some of your technologies spin off into our economy along the way as a bonus. And that is fine with me. I want you to go do science, go do exploration. It isn’t always about making money or directly enabling the private sector with every step of every project; that’s why this is a partnership. Yet even in that area you guys are doing things right.

For example, your MSL is flying to Mars on a commercial rocket. Having decided on your mission — i.e., what you wanted to accomplish at your destination — you hired a commercial launch provider to get you there. You didn’t have to design the rocket; you bought the ride. The product drove the process, not the other way around.

This stands in stark contrast with how some others in our space program operate, where process not only drives but exists independent of any specified product or goal. In fact, process and its profits are the goal. Those others don’t seem to care what I get for my tax money; they just want to be in control of a process, and the goal be dammed.

They are focused on process rather than product and systems rather than success.

Unfortunately, without clear goals, the process becomes a performance, easily subverted by those having no interest in achieving anything but their own short-term gain. They aren’t doing this for science and exploration, but for show and exploitation. They are doing theater. They are mouthing scripts and performing intricate dances invoking exploration, but they are doing nothing but selling tickets to a show about putting on a show.

You, on the other hand, are the real deal. You may not be as efficient as our private sector, but you are doing something real, taking real risks, and staying focused on the product, not the process or the production.

MSL will fly to Mars. It may or may not succeed in its goals, but at least it has goals, and they are goals based on American values and ideals.

Your agency is about to face a budget cut that is deeper than anything since it was created. I want you to be able to keep on exploring. When it comes to the fat-cutting that lies ahead, We are going to fight to make sure it is the process and the pork it creates that are removed, not the product. You will have to tighten your belts, to be sure, but know those who are wrapping themselves in your sailcloth are not your friends. They do not care if you ever voyage again. These others will fail in their attempts to subvert our space program to their ends; the question is how much they will waste that could be spent exploring before they do.

We who fight to turn space into a new economic frontier need you. You and your friends who want to return to the Moon, and those who want to develop the tools to make sure we can go to both places and anywhere else and not just stay but prosper, are our trailblazers. You are the ones who can work on things we can’t yet afford to work on. You are the ones who can go out there and tell us what you find. You are the ones who keep the fire of imagination lit. You make the government side of the multibillion-dollar investment we call our space program worth it.

And you need us. If we can develop low-cost commercial access to space you will be able to explore and do more science than has ever been done before. For every monster government rocket that doesn’t fly, we will fly dozens, and you will be able to buy those rides for pennies on the dollar. For every meddlesome minuet of control we don’t have to dance on the stage of process, our costs will drop, our efficiency will increase, your opportunities will rise and the return on our taxpayer investment in you will soar. In the meantime, we will build and drive the trucks and ships, we will follow the trails you blaze, and we will turn what you find in those places you explore into new places for Americans to create wealth and homes.

This is a partnership, based on exploration and enterprise. Those who would gut your budgets to do what we can do better for you are not your friends. We are. Science and business are based on product. We deliver you to the destination, you deliver the data. Simple, elegant. A marriage to make the heavens ours.

I and the millions of others who are giving you our money and trust offer you our support and look forward to what is coming next. We want to see the results of life tests and feel the power of human life as we look through the helmet camera of the first woman to peer over the edge of the Valles Marineris. We want you to light the imaginations of new generations, while we will give them the chance to build lives, careers and fortunes in this amazing field and eventually follow you to the edge of the known.

As I have said before, you just keep on exploring, and leave the driving to us. I salute you, MSL team, and wish you Godspeed.

We need your money.

Give us your money.

Write a check or go to our credit card page and

Look, however I put it, all of the above are true. If I have already touched you with my delicate rhetoric then do one of these and you can flip off of this note and get back to YouTube or Facebook to see what is happening in our world today.

Maybe another scandal, (who knew people had sex!?), or another revolution with close in shots of bloody faced rioters screaming at cops! Click.

There’s that rascal Kutcher again! Ohh, and what’s Kardashian doing now? Check out that cleavage! Click.

No, I think Ryan Gosling is the sexiest man alive! What do you mean pizza is a vegetable? Turkey can cure cancer? Really? Only 19% deductible if I act now? The icecaps are melting next Wednesday? Does that mean we have to cancel our recording of Santa and the Magic iBook? Click.

A puppy dressed as an elf? A Puppy Dressed As An Elf!

Yes, we have gotten damn good at communicating. Yes, some of what we have to say is true and some is, well, static re-arranged as meaning. (I call this “staticom”). Either way, we still talk about it. Heck, we will talk about anything, literally anything, because we can. We are all wired in to each other as never before. Within a couple of years the first wired implants will probably be announced and you will be able to answer the cell phone in your head and search Google on the inner lens of your eye. Information, communication, information, communication. It is all and everywhere.

And yet, what are we talking about? What is the content of all this staticom? Not much really and a large part of it is a bit depressing when you get down to it. But in the middle of all that noise… somewhere between the puppy dressed as an elf and the latest congressional trash conference… there will be a shot of a spaceship docking with a space station, or the launch of the latest probe to explore a new world, or the announcement that you will be able to fly in space yourself soon. Then a funny thing happens if you are anything like me:

All the staticom goes away.

You zone out the rest of the noise and for a moment you are in a place where dreams happen. That tiny momentary image or vid transports you instantly to a place where the future is alive, where space ships waft between worlds, and the unknown becomes the news. The best of humanity and life fill the waves and wires as we blow open the airlock into a new frontier.

And then you are back to your regular programming. Yes, five minute still saves you fifty bucks, the autopsy episode you must watch is on at 9 o’clock, and a celebrity twisted her ankle on Spinning with the Stars.

But for a moment, you were there. You transcended meaninglessness and it all made sense. The noise, the chatter, it didn’t matter. We are going to the Stars! Our feet may be in the mud, our daily lives lost in the mundane matters of now and yesterday, but tomorrow is calling.

Answer the call.

As a supporter of the Space Frontier Foundation you enable that tomorrow to become real. We aren’t the biggest space organization on Earth, nor the slickest, nor the youngest or hippest. But we have made a difference, made things change and made your chance of entering space one step closer to reality. Over 20 years ago we stood up and declared a new direction for the opening of space. We dared challenge those who would rather substitute spectacle for success and theater for accomplishment, who would rather you sit back and watch them spend your money instead of giving you a chance to go into space yourself. To do something rather than watch something. To create rather than converse. To get involved, get out of your chair and get out there.

We have been called “pound for pound the most effective space organization on Earth.” As recently as last week a major figure in the publishing world said to me that we in the Foundation should take credit for leading the change of the largest space program on Earth, and that although most people don’t know it, we are the group that has set the stage and made it happen.

I know we can’t take all the credit, but of all the groups and people out there fighting this cause, those who are consistent and credible can be found in or near the Space Frontier Foundation. They come to our conferences, read our words, party at our parties and join our many battles against those who would deny us destiny. They benefited from our defense of their ideas, their businesses and their plans. They became participants in this cause, this grand push outwards that has just barely, barely begun, because we are here and we will not step away from our desire to go there.

If you want to chatter about what doesn’t matter go ahead. We all do it. Life isn’t all about the grand and the important. But if you want to help us do something grand and important, if you want to know that you are not just sharing static and actually do something to give this life meaning, then press that button, click on that donation tab, write that check.

You won’t save 15%, you wont help re-elect another do nothing congress person, and you won’t be signing up for free weekly downloads of puppy’s with elf ears, but you will be helping us make sure that the dream of a free and open frontier in space is one step closer. That our giant leap into beginning our space settling civilization is going to occur in your lifetime.

And the next time you hear about the latest rocketship that will carry you and your kids into space, or the next plans you see for a human mission to Mars or the Moon, or plans to build places in between, you can smile and know you aren’t just another consumer of constant communication, you’re helping give them something to talk about.

Tax-deductible donations can be made at spacefrontier.org/donate. Thank You!

Download complete…

Alexandria, VA - As you’ve probably heard, Congress has just cut NASA’s budget again, below last year’s funding and well below the President’s request.  Next year, this will happen again.  And the year after that.

Some of you may be horrified at this prospect.  And some of you may hope it promotes needed reforms.  It doesn’t really matter, because there’s nothing anyone can do to change the basic math: after entitlements and interest on the debt, fewer and fewer dollars will be available for all discretionary programs.  And today “space exploration” is pretty discretionary.

Back in 1965, when I was six years old, it was different.  Our civilian space program was a key part of America’s existential fight with Soviet Communism, and NASA commanded four percent of the federal budget.  Today NASA is down to a tenth of that.  And it’s going lower still.

While we can’t change this painful reality, we can choose how we respond to it.  One approach is that taken by some U.S. Senators and managers in NASA centers and contractors: Deny reality.  Hope it gets better.  Pretend it will get better.  Keep spending like NASA’s budget will go up.  But for goodness sake don’t make any painful changes to adjust to reality.

Down this road lies more shattered promises and murdered dreams.

The alternative, of course, is to start by accepting reality, changing our approach to deal with it, and then move towards our goals.
The good news is that a lot of smart people all over America have already chosen the second path.  And I’m happy to report that some of them even work here in Washington, D.C.  From young earnest congressional staffers to professional journalists to leaders inside NASA, they know that the status quo isn’t working, and they believe that something more like the “real economy”  might work in space.

We in the Foundation – you and I – have helped to create this cultural awareness.  We have changed the conversation about space, even here in Fantasyland-on-the-Potomac.

Compare today to six years ago.  In 2005 a different NASA Administrator proclaimed his bold plan for spending tens of billions to develop not one but two new NASA-unique launch systems, both derived from the then 35-year-old Space Shuttle.  Everyone here in Washington acted like “Apollo on Steroids” was the most natural plan in the world.  So when the Augustine Commission pointed out four years later that it wasn’t affordable or sustainable, a lot of people were genuinely surprised.

Flash forward to today.  Very few people outside of the Senate would bet serious money on the proposed Space Launch System flying this decade, or ever.  (And the Senate is only betting our money, not theirs!)   That skepticism is rampant in trade aerospace publications as well as activist blogs.
But cynicism about the status quo isn’t enough.  You can’t beat even the dumbest plan if you aren’t offering a credible alternative.  That means laying out detailed proposals for alternative policies, strategies and funding priorities.

To win the war for policymakers’ minds and mindsets, the Foundation will have to put more intellectual and persuasive muscle behind our rhetoric.  We’ll need to hire experts to help write white papers, hold news conferences at the National Press Club, and even organize conferences on Capitol Hill.  We’ll find sponsors for much of this, but we’ll need money to go find them, and money to fill in the gaps.

Ultimately, our effectiveness at fighting for our vision inside the Beltway will depend on the financial support we receive from Foundationers like you.

I can’t promise that if you contribute generously we will win every battle.  But I can say that with your help, we can fight the most important battles, and advance our cause of a freer and more prosperous life for our children and grandchildren… a hopeful future we will earn by opening the space frontier, together.

Thanks in advance for giving as much as you can. Tax-deductible donations can be made at spacefrontier.org/donate

James Muncy
Co-Founder, Space Frontier Foundation