Broadcast 557 (Special Edition)
Lt. Col. Carol Welsch, USAF, was the guest for this special program. Col. Welsch, as Acting Commander, Space Development Group, of the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center Space Development and Test Wing (formerly Detachment 12), Kirtland AFB, NM, spoke at length about the Air Force program and plans to fly as many smaller and secondary payloads as possible, using all types of launch vehicles, even those in Russia. We talked about the development of the ESPA ring which will allow for secondary Atlas V EELV payloads with the first launch of the new system scheduled for Dec. 12, 2006.