An opportunity to bring together the world’s thought leaders and visionaries in personal and commercial spaceflight takes place at the 4th annual International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight in Las Cruces, New Mexico on October 22 – 23 at the Hotel Encanto de Las Cruces. Gary Payton, Deputy Under Secretary of the Air Force Space Systems is the keynote speaker, and a forum of the Key Issues Related to the Eventual Success and Evolution of Vehicle Systems for Suborbital Human and Material Transportation will be a part of the program. Governor Richardson has been invited for part of the welcoming program.
Since the early sixties, men have been flying successful suborbital missions. In the three years since the first International Symposium for Personal Spaceflight in 2005, a number of viable vehicle systems and mission profiles for suborbital human and material transportation have emerged. Hopefully, the first suborbital space tourism flights will occur before the decade ends.
The panelists in this session represent the technical, business, regulatory, and customer sides of the suborbital space enterprise, and they are qualified to discuss the current state and future of sub-orbital access to space; who is prepared now to fly, what the business cases are, and how the regulatory agencies are positioned to help expand the capacity for companies to succeed as they build this industry.
The panelists include
- Session Moderator, Bob Dickman, Executive Director, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)
- Session Chair, Tom Burton, Department Head, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New Mexico State University
- Jeff Greason – President, XCOR – invited
- Kevin Bowcutt – Chief Scientist, Boeing Phantom Works
- George Nield – Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation, FAA
- Virgin Galactic
- EADS Astrium
- Michael Blum – Founder & Managing Director of Repulse Bay Capital Ltd. & Co-President & CCO of Research Edge
If you stay an extra day you can also enjoy a tour of White Sands Test Facility and Holloman Air Force Base offered especially for ISPCS 2008 attendees. An all day tour, cost $65/person. Get an inside look at these two facilities and see firsthand their impact on spaceflight. Please access this website for the most recent info on speakers and sessions .
