Leaving Bigelow Aerospace

While I can’t speak too explicitly about the circumstances surrounding my departure, it’s time for me to update these chronicles to report that I’ve left my position as lead human factors analyst and radiation modeler/instrument designer at Bigelow Aerospace. I expect that this news may perplex many readers who know how long I’ve been working […]

Treatise: Abandoning OldSpace’s Conceit

Space Exploration is suffering an identity crisis. Like atmospheric flight before it, space exploration is evolving to include a spectrum of public and private participants, motivations, and goals. However, even amongst space enthusiasts and professionals, there is much (mostly friendly – I’ll get to that) debate regarding just what exactly it is that qualifies as […]

Calling the Space Privateers

Today, I’d like to offer a rejoinder to Michael Hanlon’s article from The Telegraph a couple of weeks back, entitled, “There’s only one question for NASA: Is anybody out there?” In it, Hanlon offers an argument against regular human space exploration in favor of dedicated robotic missions devoted exclusively to astrobiology research. Whether via orbiters, landers, rovers, or […]

Historic Dragon Caught: Dawn of Commercial Space

Quite literally, the sun dawned across from the International Space Station minutes ago to reveal history in the making. During a flawless night-time “grab,” Astronaut Don Pettit used the station’s robotic Canada arm to successfully secure SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft. This makes SpaceX the first private company to launch a spacecraft into orbit and rendezvous with […]

SpaceX chasing rocketry’s Holy Grail

As many who follow and support spaceflight are well aware, a Holy Grail of modern space transportation is the concept of the fully reusable rocket, or Reusable Launch System/Vehicle (RLV). Now, NewSpace orbital spacecraft provider SpaceX might just have this elusive target squarely in its sights. Many solutions have been suggested to achieve the true […]

NASTAR: Follow-up videos

For those interested in something a little more full-motion, I submit to you a quick post today pointing toward what civilian commercial scientist-astronaut training, (i.e., non-NASA) looks like. Courtesy of Keith Cowing (of nasawatch.com, spaceref.com, and a phalanx of other space industry sites fame,) the video of our high-g centrifuge training at the NASTAR Center […]

Future SwRI astronauts stomp on the accelerator

A quick note today on the further development of the worlds’ first commercial scientist-astronauts! The Southwest Research Institute‘s (SwRI) suborbital research program, after its stunning announcement last spring of the purchase of several research seats on upcoming suborbital spaceflights, is showing no signs of slowing. Recently, after their three commercial scientist-astronauts-in-training, (specifically termed payload specialists,) […]

NASTAR: Day 1 – Sky High

[[NOTE: I apologize for the 1-day lag. It’s also finals week in grad school.]] Today was truly extraordinary – the training more utilitarian than I could have imagined. I’m still attempting to process it all. The day began with general introductions and a tour of the NASTAR Center along with the extensive onsite manufacturing facilities […]

NASTAR: Day 0 – Part 1

Well, it’s 2:00 p.m. local time in San Francisco International Airport, and reality is starting to set in: After what amounts to 15 years of anticipation, I’m headed out to engage in FAA-certified civilian scientist-astronaut training at the NASTAR Center (reviewed in my previous post here)! After a grueling morning – I was awakened well […]

T-minus 1 week: Aiming for NASTAR

I’m coming up on a positively Everest-ian milestone in my ongoing quest to become a commercial astronaut, and it’s been a long time coming: Astronaut training. Supported by my spaceflight consulting firm, Astrowright Spaceflight Consulting LLC, I’m heading out in a week to attend highly specialized training offered by the only FAA-certified civilian spaceflight training […]