Guest: Charles Chafer. Topics: Commercial space history & overview, space burial and memorial services. 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. In addition, please remember that your Amazon purchases can help support The Space Show/OGLF. See www.onegiantleapfoundation.org/amazon.htm. For those listening to archives using live365.com and rating the programs, please email me as to why you assign a specific rating to the show. This will help me bring better programming to the audience. We welcomed Charlie Chafer back to the program to discuss commercial space, the Celestis space memorial services and flights, plus much more. During the first segment of our 88 minute program, Charlie started out by providing an overview of the commercial space history since he played a huge role in its start decades ago. For example, he talked about the fist ever commercial launch that was done by his company, the regulatory and permit process back then, and how the industry has evolved since those early days. It’s a most interesting discussion with one of the major founders of the commercial space industry. We then changed topic to talk about the space memorial services and how this industry has changed since 1994 when Charlie co-founded Celestis. As for today, Celestis has a global customer space offering several categories of space memorial services, all of which are described on the Celestis website, www.celestis.com. There launches are far more routine today with more launch vehicle availability. Regarding the lunar service, he talked about sending Eugene Shoemaker's remains to the Moon, then later in the second segment, he talked about the commercial space significance of having done this. Celestis offers four services including Earth Rise which is suborbital, an orbital service known as Earth Orbit or Earth view, the Lunar Service, and the Voyager Service which is a deep space mission. He described each service but also he talked at length as to how Celestis carries out a memorial spaceflight starting with advance work before the launch, tours of the launch pad, a special Celestial memorial service, and the launch. Listeners asked Charlie several questions about the service including listener Judy who had seen rocket launches before and wondered how those attending a memorial service launch viewed watching a rocket launch. Before the segment ended, Charlie was asked about pet memorial services. Celestis offers the Celestis Pets Memorial service. Check out www.celestispets.com for more information on this service. In the second segment, we focused on commercial space, customers, markets, commercial waves and more. Our guest pointed out some thoughts that might suggest a possible commercial space "bubble" ahead. He also talked about & described the three waves of commercial space history. Charlie talked about his interest in opening up commercial markets in the space weather field and we talked about the value of data as a product. Regarding SSP which he mentioned, he said it has not developed but may do so down the road in the future. The same for pharmaceuticals and other energy related possibilities. We talked about the many commercial applications, customers, and uses for GPS, truly a successful commercial space field and product. A listener asked Charlie how he thought the commercial markets might change if we had low cost commercial launches available to go to private, commercial space stations instead of the ISS. Jake wanted to know Charlie's thoughts on SLS and Orion. I asked Charlie if he saw any possibilities for human spaceflight commercial products or services in the near to intermediate term. Other points of interest included space tourism and adventure travel, especially for orbital flight which might be 15-17 years in the future. A listener then asked Charlie about the lunar memorial service and if you had to be a special person to get permission to be have remains sent to the Moon. Charlie described the process they went through with Gene Shoemaker and why they did it the way they did it because they wanted to set a commercial space precedent for the future. Among his closing comments, he said space is hard and take action to follow your dreams. Please post your comments/questions on TSS blog above. You can reach Charles Chafer through his websites or me.
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