Broadcast 2016 (Special Edition)

Guests: Dr. William Gaubatz, Cathy Harper, Nino Polizzi, Chris Orwoll. Topics: We discussed the DC-X SSTO rocket & its 20th anniversary celebration. 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 Dr. William Gaubatz, Cathy Harper, Nino Polizzi, & Chris Orwoll to the program to discuss the 20th anniversary of the DC-X SSTO prototype rocket and the celebration planned for August 16-18 at Spaceport America and the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, NM. Please visit their website for more information about the celebration and the DC-X: www.dc-xspacequest.org. Our program was 1 hour 38 minutes in one segment. Dr. Gaubatz started off with a DC-X overview and information about the anniversary celebration. Bill was followed by Nino who talked about the DC-X team and participants in the event. He also provided us with his email address for specific follow up per his discussion. Please contact him directly about this program. Next, we talked with Cathy. She provided us with information about the conference, the logistics for the first day at Spaceport America, then the balance of the event in Alamogordo at the NM Museum of Space History. We talked about the International Space Hall of Fame and the first ever team induction to the Hall of Fame. The listeners and I asked several questions about a team induction and Cathy and then later the other guests explained the idea behind a team induction in addition to telling us who the DC-X team members were, including specific companies/contractors for the project. Chris Orwoll spoke about the museum and its new relationship with the Smithsonian Institution as it is now a Smithsonian Affiliate. We talked about the benefits for the NM museum with this new relationship. Chris outlined new museum plans for the NewSpace addition with the DC-X SpaceQuest exhibit. Listeners asked many questions via email and by telephone. Jack from VA called in with questions about the team and the government contracting method used with DC-X. Dave Ketchum called in to talk about the impact of DC-X on hobby rocketry. Several listeners email in questions about why DC-X was cancelled, the politics of it, and one wanted to know who designed the aeroshell for the rocket. Montana John emailed in asking about the payload mass fraction to the GTOW of the vehicle. Chris also talked more about the museum and its plans, funding plans, and development already underway. Listeners and the guests did spend time talking about the politics of the DC-X, SSTO, and low cost launches to LEO, along with the politics of it all then and now. One question asked our guests had to do with why there was so much support & interest for DC-X 20 years after the project was cancelled. Don't miss our guest responses. Toward the end, our guests summarized the conference logistics and plans for the DC-X celebration. Chris and Cathy then told us that the museum had been selected to house the NSS archives. This is important so listen to what they had to say. If you have NSS or L5 archives, please contact them or the curator per their instructions. Please post your comments/questions on The Space Show blog. If you want to email either of the guests, you can do so through me.