Broadcast 738 (Special Edition)

Alan Ladwig was the guest for this Space Show program. Alan, having just returned from visiting the Paris Air Show, brought us up to date on the space component and several other items of interest regarding the air show during the first segment. We learned of the lean NASA presence while other national space agencies were strongly represented. Also, the NewSpace industry here in the States was not represented. We talked about commercial and business jets, Boeing and Airbus competition, the new suborbital UK vehicle by EADS Astrium and much more. This is a most interesting discussion you won't want to miss. For the second and third segments of the program, we focused our attention on topical space programs and issues. One issue that listeners brought up and we spent considerable time discussing with good listener input had to do with point to point suborbital travel. Several listeners provided us with current information and Alan described what he experienced in the early years of going through the regulatory process with Zero G. Again, don't miss this discussion. We talked about the VSE and its various components as well as public reaction to it and how to improve public reaction and awareness. We talked about the NASA budget and asked Alan if we doubled the NASA budget if it would improve things with the VSE, especially the time frame so that we would get to the Moon much sooner than planned. Don't miss his response to this question. Alan is also participating in the Overview Effect Conference on July 18 as part of NewSpace 2007 so we discussed his role in this event. This led to his sharing with us his view of space tourism and how it has changed over the years from his early day of working for NASA from the early 80's through to the present. Toward the end of the program, listener Sondra said the status quo with space not being totally valued or understood was unacceptable and she specifically asked Alan how to change the situation given her refusal to accept the status quo as to how our public space program is perceived and managed. You will want to hear how Alan responds to this listener and then references this question over and over again in the remaining minutes of the show. You can send your follow up comments and questions to Alan Ladwig at ALadwig@WBBINC.COM.