Guest: Doug Messier. Topics: Spaceport America and Virgin Galactic informed consent, liability, & contract issues per www.parabolicarc.com & much more. Please direct all comments and questions regarding Space Show programs/guest(s) to the Space Show blog, http://thespaceshow.wordpress.com. Comments and questions should be relevant to the specific Space Show program. Written Transcripts of Space Show programs are a violation of our copyright and are not permitted without prior written consent, even if for your own use. We do not permit the commercial use of Space Show programs or any part thereof, nor do we permit editing, YouTube clips, or clips placed on other private channels & websites. Space Show programs can be quoted, but the quote must be cited or referenced using the proper citation format. Contact The Space Show for further information. We welcomed Doug Messier back to the program to discuss his reporting on Spaceport America and Virgin informed consent issues and possible contract issues. We also talked to him about his management of Parabolic Arc, his possible expansion of the blog and even accepting guest contributors. Check out his reporting and stories at www.parabolicarc.com. Our first subject was on Spaceport America and Virgin starting with Doug's most recent post about possible Virgin rent payment disputes followed by the informed consent issues which may now have been resolved through negotiations with Virgin, the NM legislature, and NM trial attorneys. We took listener calls and emails and as it turned out, the spaceport and Virgin story was controversial with listeners all over the board on these issues ranging from Charles who believes the spaceport and the industry are way ahead of their time to others who believe success will definitely prevail for the spaceport, Virgin and the industry. Another issue discussed in the first segment was the hybrid rocket engine, possible Virgin problems with it, and related items. Doug shared his information with us on the subject and provided us with a brief history & overview on the hybrid engine. We talked about powered test flights and the difficulty in doing these ventures given they always seem to be about two years away from operations. In the second segment, Doug told us about activities at the Mojave Air and Space Port including the construction for Stratolaunch. Somehow we ended up again discussing hybrid engines and informed consent. Doug was asked about Virgin and XCOR differences and he spoke as much as he could about the Lynx but said he was under NDA with XCOR as he is working on an XCOR book. He seemed to favor the XCOR approach. We talked about his future plans for Parabolic Arc. He is thinking of broadening it to other areas and accepting guest contributions. I asked him about his visits to see the ATK five segment SRB tests and his thoughts on solids, ATK, etc. He had much to say about it and SLS. He continued talking about Mojave, I asked him if he had ever seen the Orbital L1011 and he told us about his tour of it and hearing Bill Weaver speak about his SR-71 breakup and survival. A listener asked him about Interorbital out of Mojave, we talked about Dream Chaser, and more. If you have comments/questions for Doug, post them on The Space Show blog. You can email him through me at drspace@thespaceshow.com.
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