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Broadcast 997 (Special Edition)Listen to the show!
Aired on August 11th, 2008
Guests: Dr. Jeffrey Foust, Charles Miller
Guests: Dr. Jeff Foust and Charles Miller returned to The Space Show to discuss their three part series, "The Vision for Space Exploration and the retirement of the Baby Boomers," in The Space Review. We started the discussion today with the introduction to the problem as they see it. Baby Boomers will soon be retiring and taxing the entitlement and other support aspects of the U.S. budget. Thus, there will be fewer funds available for the discretionary budget including NASA and programs such as the VSE. Thus, Charles and Jeff have outlined a program to focus NASA on CATS (cheap reliable access to space) in order to facilitate the VSE and other space development programs. Listeners asked many questions as to how such a program would work and be implemented. One caller challenged our guests to think about another type of program saying that using non-profit organizations in the Coalition means doing the same things that have already been done before and failed. Listen to this exchange and see what you think. We talked about drivers for the CATS program, including flying people to space, how to raise the launch rate, and even the student/academic launch market. While the Coalition for Cheap and Reliable Access to Space that Charles talks about is bringing in support with non-profits, Charles invites all listeners interested in this type of program to contact him at his email address below. Other listeners sent in questions and comments, saying they now had a clearer and different understanding and perspective of issues facing NASA, the budget, and lowering launch costs. One listener even proclaimed that he was going through Kool Aid withdrawal! Let Charles and Jeff know what you think of this program and support the cause if you agree. A fourth article in the Space Review on this subject should be available by the end of this month. If you have any questions or comments for Charles Miller, send them to him at spacepolicy@yahoo.com. For Dr. Jeff Foust, use jeff@thespacereview.com.

About our guests...

Dr. Jeffrey Foust
Dr. Jeff Foust is the editor of The Space Review (www.thespacereview.com), a weekly online publication of articles and commentary on space-related topics. He also publishes Spacetoday.net, which provides links to and summaries of space news from around the web, as well as spacepolitics.com, a weblog devoted to space policy topics. He has written articles on a variety of astronomy and space topics for magazines such as Ad Astra, Astronomy Now, and Sky & Telescope. He works as a launch industry analyst for the Futron Corporation, an aerospace and telecommunications consulting company in Bethesda, Maryland. Jeff has a BS with honors in geophysics from Caltech and a PhD in planetary sciences from MIT.

Charles Miller
Mr. Miller is President of Space Policy Consulting, Inc., the President and CEO of Constellation Services International, Inc., a Member of the Board of Directors of the Space Frontier Foundation, and led the “Public-Private Partnerships” section of the NSSO's Space-Based Solar Power study. Miller is currently under contract to the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in the area of Operationally Responsive Space access and is helping the AFRL be a smarter partner with the emerging space transportation industry. SPC supports a number of ongoing AFRL activities in the reusable launch vehicle area. Mr. Miller is also the founding President and CEO of Constellation Services International, Inc. (CSI), which is a NewSpace company that specializes in commercial on-orbit space operations — which is an ideal knowledge niche to advise on SBSP. CSI was founded in 1998, and is an entrepreneurial space services company that is focused on commercial opportunities in Earth orbit. CSI is developing, and patenting, a number of innovative solutions for orbital space markets, including LEO ExpressSM Space Cargo System for delivering cargo to space stations that uses over 99% existing technology, and the Lunar ExpressSM system that uses existing technology to enable a near-term human trip around the Moon. Miller has raised over $2 million in private investments for CSI to date. CSI has successfully completed 4 NASA contracts to date related to commercial ISS cargo services, and has an existing Space Act Agreement with NASA to cooperate on the development of CSI’s LEO Express system. Prior to CSI and Space Policy Consulting, Mr. Miller was the founding Chairman and President of ProSpace where he served from 1996 to 1999. Under Mr. Miller's leadership, ProSpace was instrumental in the passage of space-related legislative initiatives, including the Commercial Space Act of 1998, funding for NASA's X-33, Future-X and Space Solar Power programs, and the U.S. Air Force’s RLV Technology Development program. Mr. Miller studied engineering at the California Institute of Technology and has a BS in Business Administration (Finance) from the California State University of Chico.

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