Col. Gary Henry, USAF, was the guest for this Space Show program. Col. Henry, author of “The Decision Maker’s Guide To Robust, Reliable, And Inexpensive Access To Space.” (http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/awc/henry.pdf.) spoke to us about many of the issues involved in launching rockets. Some of the issues addressed were federal range and fee issues, his experiences at Vandenberg AFB working with the large government launchers as well as SpaceX and Elon Musk with the Falcon and lessons learned, how to best solve many of the problems, space tourism as the industry jump starter, air launch, and magic bullets. Col. Henry also went into some detail to discuss the infrastructure needed to launch rockets today and how it is imperative that we simplify not only the needed infrastructure but the way we do things. He commented that we are stuck in an industry with a 50 year or so history yet if we were starting up a launch industry today from scratch it is doubtful that it would look anything like today's rocket and launch industry. We spoke about the private sector selling flights to DOD as well as NASA, DOD building the vehicles for the next generation of space transportation, and above all, technology and engineering versus business systems and operations. This program addressed many of the issues that are frequently discussed on The Space Show. Listeners are urged to download and read Col. Henry's paper, to listen to what Col. Henry has to say about these issues now and for the probable future. Questions and comments for Col. Henry can be sent to me at drspace@thespaceshow.com and I will forward them to him.
Guest
The Space Show
