Guest: Michael Belfiore. Topics: Current events for space topics, selection of Dragon & CST100, 3D printing in space, lots 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. 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 Michael Belfiore back to the show to discuss a variety of space news and current events items, plus trends in the industry. During the first segment of our 1 hour 41 minute program, Michael talked about DARPA given his recent book on the agency, then we turned to the recent commercial crew down select NASA announcement naming the Boeing CST100 and SpaceX Dragon as the two companies that NASA will continue supporting for commercial crew. We spent lots of time talking about Boeing and SpaceX plus everyone was wondering if Sierra Nevada and Dream Chaser would find a way to stay in the game. The next topic was the Google Lunar X Prize challenge. Michael pointed out that a government had gotten to the Moon fist with a rover, the Chinese, thus the rules of the contest were changed to allow the contest to continue. Marshall called to talk about the down select process and winners. SLS John called to tell us that he thought Dream Chaser and SpaceX would be the winners. He and others suggested Boeing was the conservative choice. He also asked about the news that a Boeing-Bezos deal was in the making for the new American made RD180 engine replacement. Michael suggested throughout our discussion that the old guard or the traditional aerospace industry and participants were under lots of pressure from NewSpace. In the second segment, we took a call from Doug who commented on the down select process. Michael then talked about the Tesla deal for Nevada and their proposed gigafactory for electric car batteries. We talked about electric cars in general, then Tim called to suggest a conversion kit for conventional autos to turn them into electric cars. I questioned that from a market perspective. Michael then introduced space manifesting and we talked about the 3D printer on the way to the ISS. Michael mentioned Maven which was to be inserted into Mars orbit Sunday evening, 9:37 EDT. News update: Maven's orbital insertion was a big success! Congrats to NASA and the entire Maven team. We also talked about Comet Siding Spring, Suborbital flights came up and we heard Michael express concerns about Virgin Galactic & confidence with the Lynx and XCOR. He talked about the early spaceflight participants and the risks they would be taking. Visit his website, www.michaelbelfiore.com. You can also subscribe to his email newsletter and join him on social media, all through his website. Please post comments/questions on TSS blog above. You can reach Michael through his website or me.
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