I’m at the Space Frontier Conference, with computer today. George Nield of the FAA is about to speak about the current state of launch regulations.

Here goes…

Happy to be here with people so dedicated to affordable access to space. Thinks that this is a subject whose time has come. At a key transition point now between way things were done in the past and what can be accomplished in the future.

“Our world is on the verge of a truly historic breakthrough–cheap access to space.”

On the verge–a time and a place where public spirit and public policy are coming together to make it possible for public space travel.

Talking about the thousands of people who have already signed up for suborbital flights. Notes events of just the last month–Greg Olsen flying to space on his own dime, the formation of the rocket racing league, the X-Prize Cup event, the Chinese taikonaut launch, the FAA International Safety Forum with a panel on private spaceflight, moderated by Bob Walker, with panelists Dennis Tito, Elon Musk of SpaceX, Will Whitehorn of Virgin Galactic, astronaut Hoot Gibson, etc. demonstrating that people are taking this seriously.

Encouraged by the formation of so many entrepreneurial companies, specifically Virgin Galactic’s and Scaled Composites “Spaceship Company.” Pointing out that new services initially have high prices, but that price comes down eventually (uses early aviation as an example). Lauding Bigelow’s new space prize. Entrepreneurial spirit a key component.

Another key component is growing support in the federal government. Citing Aldridge Report that commercial activities should be a key component of the Vision for Space Exploration. New transportation policy from December 2004: “Government must capitalize on private sector,” “Secretaries of Commerce and Transportation must encourage commercial space activities, including commercial human spaceflight.” Also citing Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act from last year. FAA must have final rules in place by June, 2006.

What comes next? Emphasis on safety. All previous licensed launches have resulted in no casualties, but they were all expendable. Reusables pose new challenge, but emphasis on safety will continue. Patti Grace Smith noted recently that private human spaceflight will encourage and stimulate interest in spaceflight in general. People increasingly will know people who have flown into space, and will start to realize that one doesn’t have to be an astronaut, waiting for NASA to select you, to do so–will be able to fly on FAA-licensed private vehicles. Hoping that many of us will get to fly. “FAA plans to take us beyond the verge.”

End of talk. Questions now.

During speech, he said that people at the conference had criticized the president’s vision the day before. Along the lines of Michael Mealing, I pointed out that we weren’t criticizing the vision, but rather NASA’s proposed implementation of it.

In response to a question about concern of overreaction to an accident, he says that people die in aviation accidents every year, but that the FAA doesn’t shut down the industry, or people stop flying. Primary focus will remain on safety to uninvolved public, not passengers. Congress and FAA recognize that people are flying at their own risk.

There’s a break now. Upcoming is a two-hour panel on the role of government in opening up space, which should be interesting.

I’ve been at the Space Frontier Conference, but was in and out, having to split my time with issues at my current day job in El Segundo, so I haven’t had my computer there, and consequently haven’t been live blogging it. But Michael Mealing has.

He also useful thoughts on nomenclature:

In light of the desire for budget controls in the aftermath of Katrina and Rita, Congress is possibly in the mood to cut budgets either now or in the future. If the space community is misunderstood by Congress to be against the Vision itself then Congress may not have any qualms about forcing the Architecture to be indiscriminately cut. Currently the Centennial Challenges program is part of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate which is the part of NASA in charge of the Architecture as well. If ESMD’s budget is cut and money has to be moved around to support large contracts with the primes then that money will in all likelihood come from programs like Centennial Challenges. Ambiguous punditry that confuse the Vision with the Architecture now would most likely result in future cries of “That’s not what we meant!”

I learned from Gwynne Shotwell today that SpaceX has delayed the launch of the Falcon I from their earlier planned date of October 31st to later in November. She didn’t describe any particular issue, other than that they want to take a little more time to make sure that they get everything right on this flight, which is their maiden one, and will be crucial to the credibility of their future endeavors. Unfortunately, if they delay past the third week of November, they’ll lose their launch site in Kwajalein for a couple months, so if it doesn’t fly in November, it won’t fly until next year.

Good luck to them–a lot of hopes are riding on a company that can demonstrate that orbit doesn’t have to cost as much, or take as long to develop, as conventional wisdom would indicate.

But if you’re interested in space, and aren’t a regular reader of Space Transport News, you should be, and there’s lots of good stuff over there today.

Folks in southern California will have an opportunity to see the last Titan IV launch out of Vandenberg in about an hour, at 11:04 AM Pacific time. If the sky is clear, go outside and look to the west. Spaceflightnow is blogging the countdown.

[Update a couple minutes later]

To clarify, it’s the last Titan IV (or Titan anything) launch, period. It just happens to be launching out of Vandenberg. And with its retirement, Delta IV can take over as reigning pad queen.

[Update at 11 AM PDT]

I don’t know if it was the Transterrestrialanche, or what, but SpaceFlightNow is now down.

[Update at 11:30 PDT]

Well, it apparently launched, but I didn’t see it. There was a slight marine layer, and it may have obscured the view.

DoD space programs are a management mess.

[Via Kevin Parkin]

Alan Boyle has an interesting report from New Mexico:

The “giggle factor” that often dogged the space tourism industry in the pre-SpaceShipOne era is gone forever. “Now the idea of personal spaceflight can come out of the closet,” Michael Kelly, vice president of the X Prize Foundation, told an audience of more than 200 at New Mexico State University here.

Jeff Greason explains the importance of these kinds of events, and the suborbital industry, despite the foolish naysayers who think it has nothing to do with orbit:

“We don’t know how to make spaceships that can fly a couple of times a day, every day for years,” he said. “We don’t know how to fly so safely and so reliably that we can fly people as a business. We don’t know how to make money yet. … If we’re ever going to free ourselves from the kinds of fits and starts, one spurt of energy per generation, little incremental bits of progress that characterize government funding in space, we’ve got to start making a profit. And we don’t know how to do that yet. We don’t know any of those things. But we think we have pretty good ideas about how to solve them, and we aren’t the only ones.”

He also had some good news:

“We are off the back burner [with the Xerus project], but we don’t have enough money that I can confidently say we can finish working on the vehicle,” Greason told MSNBC.com.

Other interesting news:

Tai told the audience of rocket entrepreneurs and enthusiasts at Thursday’s symposium that Virgin Galactic wasn’t necessarily locked into using SpaceShipOne design exclusively, just as the Virgin Atlantic airline isn’t locked into using a specific kind of airplane.

“We want to partner with all of the people in this industry. … If you have a better spaceship than Burt Rutan, then Virgin Galactic wants to operate that spaceship,” Tai said.

In other words, they want to be a spaceline.

I’m going to be attending this conference in LA in a couple weeks. Those who are interested in the other space program may want to do so as well.

You know, if Tom Hanks could stop being so enthralled with NASA, and use his money and influence to help out some of the private players in space, he might actually be able to get to the moon before 2018. And they’d even be willing to build a vehicle that can handle his 6’1″ frame.

[via Fred Kiesche]

Clark Lindsey just got back from the Air and Space Museum. He’s got pictures.