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February 10, 2005:
SOI Press Release.
Washington, DC (February 10, 2005) The SubOrbital Institute,
an industry association for the emerging suborbital launch services
industry, conducted a series of briefings for congressional staffers
this week. "We need to raise awareness of this emerging high technology
industry." said Andrew Case, Washington Director of the Institute.
Briefings covered a range of topics, including regulations governing
hiring of rocket scientists who are non-US citizens, and educational
opportunities created by low cost suborbital spaceflight. According
to Case the overall response from staffers was "generally positive,
though the all important Congressional committees are still in
flux after the recent election, which makes it difficult to start
work on new legislation until later in the session." The Institute
plans further briefing events in the upcoming year.
January 27, 2005:
SOI Press Release.
The SubOrbital Institute is a non-profit industry organization
dedicated to reducing barriers to the development of a vigorous
suborbital launch services industry.
The Institue will be holding a lobbying event in Washington DC
on February 8th and 9th. We will be focusing our efforts on reforming
ITAR, which currently prevents US companies from exporting certain
space related technologies to other countries, including US allies
with similar levels of technology.
If you are going to be in the DC area during the event, and
are interested in volunteering, you are welcome to participate.
Email Andrew Case
with contact information and a brief biography so that we will
know who you are and how to best deploy your skills.
This will be the fourth Suborbital Action Day. If you want to
speak to lawmakers about the development of commercial human spaceflight
and help promote the opportunity for ordinary Americans to fly
in space, contact us about this and future Suborbital Action Days.
Dec.10, 2004
Commercial Space Launch Amendments
Act - H.R.5382
-
passes Senate. Goes to the President for signing into law.
Dec. 8, 2004
Statement released by the Suborbital Institute:
The SubOrbital Institute congratulates all those who worked
so hard to pass the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of
2004. In particular we congratulate SOI member company XCOR,
who was the driving force behind initiating the legislation and
pushing it forward against considerable obstacles.
The passage of this bill represents an important step towards
creating a regulatory environment favorable to innovation and
to the development of the emerging SubOrbital Launch Services
industry. This bill is an important step, but it is just the first
of many regulatory adjustments that need to be made to facilitate
the development of the industry. The SubOrbital Institute will
work to build on this major step forwards.
Oct.21, 2004
Scaled Composites Wins Ansari X PRIZE!!
Oct. 4, 2004
See Media Section for links
to articles and other info.
Sept.29, 2004
Suborbital Institute Congratulates
Scaled Composites
for Successful First Ansari X PRIZE Flight.
The SubOrbital Institute congratulates Burt Rutan, Paul Allen,
Mike Melvill, and Scaled Composites on the successful completion
of their first Ansari X-PRIZE flight. Their achievement clearly
shows that the era of affordable private suborbital spaceflight
is dawning. The Institute and its member companies will continue
to work to make the vision of affordable private spaceflight a
reality.
August 12, 2004
Suborbital Institute Comments on
Recent Test Flight Incidents
"The recent test crashes of two teams developing suborbital spacecraft
without any injuries, damage to property, or hazard to the public
clearly show that with adequate safety precautions testing of
suborbital vehicles can be conducted safely.
We congratulate both teams for bringing their development programs
to the point where they are able to flight test vehicles, and
we applaud their resolution to continue in the face of setbacks.
Test programs are conducted precisely so that problems are found
during testing and so can be corrected.
Unplanned and unexpected flight events are par for the course,
and are taken into account in planning test programs so as to
minimize risk of injury, property damage or hazard to the public."
July 12, 2004
SOI Names New Washington Director
Citing the demands of a growing company, Pat Bahn of TGV
Rockets has given up his position as Washington Director of
the Suborbital
Institute. Interim director will be Dr. Andew Case.
Dr. Case is a plasma physicist at the University of Maryland
who has been actively involved with the SubOrbital Institute since
its inception. He says that he has been a space enthusiast since
childhood and he "believes that the member companies of the
SubOrbital Institute are the best hope for opening the space frontier
for everyone."
June 22, 2004
SOI Press Release:
Suborbital Institute Congratulates
Scaled Composites Leader
Burt Rutan for Record Setting Flight.
June 22 Washington DC
The Suborbital Institute, a trade association for the nascent
piloted suborbital spaceship industry would like to congratulate
Burt Rutan and the team at Scaled Composites for their record
setting flight to 328,000 feet. An Institude executive director
who attended the flight reported from Mojave, "It was the most
exciting thing, I've ever seen. The engines just lit up and you
could see Mike Melvill flying into the history books". Washington
director Pat Bahn stated "All day long people were buzzing about
the news, this is a whole new industry being born".
SpaceShipOne
Makes History with First Manned Private Spaceflight - Space.com
- June 1, 2004
More articles at
May 17-18, 2004
Suborbital Action Days campaign takes place on Capitol
Hill. See the Talking
Points made with the Congressional staff during briefings.
On May 17-18, 2004 the Suborbital Institute held its fourth Suborbital
Action Day on Capitol Hill. Executives of suborbital spaceflight
companies and interested members of the public met with House
and Senate offices to discuss upcoming legislation and regulatory
issues affecting commercial suborbital spaceflight.
See the Talking
Points discussed during the presentations with Congressional
Staffers.
If you want to speak to lawmakers about the development of commercial
human spaceflight and help promote the opportunity for ordinary
Americans to fly in space, contact us about future Suborbital
Action Days. We invite interested parties to get in touch with
us, so that we may add you to our scheduling. Email edwright2000@hotmail.com
with your name, contact information, and a brief bio. We will
get in touch to provide you with more information.
May 13, 2004
April 8, 2004
SOI congratulates Scaled Composites
(Mach 2 and 100K)
Suborbital Institute Says All Systems Go for Commercial Space
Norman, OK -- Scaled Composite's SpaceShipOne
is blazing a path to the future, according to the Suborbital Institute,
an industry association promoting the development of commercial
human spaceflight. "Yesterday, the Federal Aviation Administration
announced that SpaceShip had received the first launch license
for a piloted suborbital rocket," said Institute Chairman Patrick
Bahn. "Less than 24 hours later, SpaceShip One set new speed and
altitude records for private vehicles, reaching 105,000 feet and
Mach 2."
"The race to create commercial space transportation is accelerating,"
Bahn said, pointing to SpaceShip One and other recent developments.
"In the past few weeks, we have seen Scaled Composites setting
new records, the FAA awarding of the first launch license, the
House of Representatives passing a bill to streamline launch regulations,
the state of New Mexico allocating $9 million for a suborbital
spaceflight competition, and NASA announcing the creation of prizes
to encourage private-sector innovation."
"Today's flight shows that it doesn't take a government rocket
scientist," Bahn said. "Human spaceflight is now within reach
of private companies and private investment. We look forward to
seeing many more flights by many companies, including Scaled Composites,
in years to come."
Suborbital rockets are viable business vehicles, said Edward Wright,
president of Suborbital Institute member company X-Rocket, LLC.
"Suborbital rockets can be built with trailing-edge, rather than
leading-edge, technologies," Wright said. "The goal is not to
push the edge of the envelope on performance, but to reduce the
cost of the envelope. The government did these things years ago.
We want to bring the cost down so other people can take part.
This is spaceflight for the rest of us."
Suborbital rockets can address viable markets in research, education,
remote sensing, and space tourism, Bahn said. "The bottom line
is, you can make a buck. And the buck *starts* here."
The Suborbital Institute is an industry association whose members
include many firms involved in the development of suborbital commercial
human spaceflight, including TGV
Rockets, Armadillo
Aerospace, Vela
Technology Development, XCOR
Aerospace, and
X-Rocket, LLC. Membership is also open to members of the public
who support the development of the suborbital commercial human
spaceflight industry.
April 7, 2004
Suborbital Institute Congratulates
Scaled Composites, Applauds FAA Action
Norman, OK -- The SubOrbital Institute today congratulated Scaled
Composites of Mojave, CA for being the first firm to receive
a Federal launch license for a piloted suborbital rocket. The
Institute applauded the Federal
Aviation Administration's Office of Commercial Space Transportation
for its action in issuing the historic launch license, which was
announced on April 7th.
Scaled Composites, run by aviation legend Burt Rutan, is already
in the process of test flying Spaceship
One, a winged suborbital rocket designed to win the $10 million
X-Prize.
"We believe this action is another step in opening the road to
space, creating a new industry and new opportunities for all Americans,"
said Institute Chairman Patrick Bahn. "Regulatory barriers have
been a concern to suborbital entrepreneurs and investors, but
this action shows that things are heading in the right direction."
The Institute praised the FAA for streamlining past regulations
that were considered overly burdensome, while at the same time
protecting public safety. The Institute plans to work with the
FAA and legislators to further streamline regulations in the future.
The Institute was instrumental in supporting the Commercial
Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004, which recently passed
the House of Representatives by a wide margin. One provision of
the HR 3752 would create a class of experimental launch permits,
making it easier for companies like Scaled to test experimental
rockets.
Members and supporters of the Suborbital Institute will go to
Capitol Hill on Monday and Tuesday, May 17-18, to lobby for passage
of the HR 3752, which is now in the hands of the Senate. Pat Bahn
extended an open invitation for supporters of commercial human
spaceflight to join Institute members in the lobbying event. Interested
parties may email edwright2000@hotmail.com
to sign up.
The Suborbital Institute is an industry association whose members
include many firms involved in the development of suborbital commercial
human spaceflight, including TGV
Rockets, Armadillo
Aerospace, Vela
Technology Development, XCOR
Aerospace, and
X-Rocket, LLC. Membership is also open to members of the public
who support the development of the suborbital commercial human
spaceflight industry.
March 3, 2004:
Revolutionizing
SpaceFlight
by Pat Bahn
Contributed editorial, Space News, Feb 23, 2004
By the time this editorial is read, the dust will have settled
on the president’s new space strategy. Budget proposals will have
started to work through the Congress, architectures will have
been drafted, opinion pieces will opine upon numerous aspects
of a moon-Mars plan, and industry will have weighed in to replicate
a goal achieved when I was 6 years old.
Meanwhile, a quiet revolution will have started away from the
spotlight in obscure parts of America where a new breed of rocket
ship will be taking flight. The Suborbital Reusable Launch Vehicle
(RLV) will be finding its place in the skies of America and in
the markets of the American consumer.
To understand the meaning of this, a little history lesson is
needed. In the late 1970’s, Business Week magazine ran a cover
story on the latest Cray supercomputer and how it was going to
revolutionize American business. Deep inside that same magazine
was a small story mentioning that Apple computer was now selling
micro-computers. Business Week was correct that a computer was
going to revolutionize American society, they were just wrong
about which machine it was going to be. Fifty percent of the American
public and 99 percent of the aerospace industry are convinced
that a moon program will revitalize and grow a new space era.
Meanwhile, 1 percent of the industry is working on the systems
that will actually do that.
For the last 2 years a quiet change has been occurring. Small,
privately funded teams have been flying prototype systems that
have not received much notice. Armadillo Aerospace in Dallas,
XCor and Scaled Composites in Mojave, Blue Origins in Seattle
and TGV Rockets in Norman, Okla. have all begun pushing equipment
off of the drawing boards and into the skies.
Three of these companies have now begun flight tests of early
generation vehicles and have managed to grow and progress forward.
What is rather interesting is that for less then $50 million between
all of them, they now have dozens of flights and have reached
altitudes approaching 21,000 kilometers and minutes of powered
flight.
While the suborbital community is not producing papers for the
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics or interesting
doctoral theses, they are rapidly outproducing what came from
the mainstream research community in the past 20 years.
All we have to show for the last two decades are programs like:
- the X-30 National Aerospace Plane program, which cost $4.5
billion and never produced a test flight;
- the X-33, which cost NASA and its contractors about $1.5 billion
and also never flew;
- the X-34 which cost $180 million was canceled and also never
produced a flight test;
- the X-38 Crew Rescue Vehicle program, which cost $300 million
and so far produced only drop tests, and;
- the X-43 which cost $100 million, but broke up when the Pegasus
booster launching it suffered structural failure 8 seconds into
flight.
What differentiates companies such as Scaled Composites or TGV
from the above projects is that the companies do not focus on
research and development.Instead they concentrate on cost management
and on doing sub-orbital flight for its own sake.
Pure suborbital rocket ships have a long history of success. The
X-1, the X-2, the X-15 and the DC-X/DC-XA were highly successful
and economical programs.
Over the next 12 months we will see several credible attempts
on the X prize and quite possibly the first revenue generating
flights. Applications for suborbital space transport include remote
sensing, reconnaissance, scientific experiments, spacecraft instrument
testing, and giving rides to people who want to experience spaceflight
for themselves rather than watching a few government employees
enjoy the experience.
The U.S. government has begun to recognize this prospect. The
Department of Commerce, for example, issued last year a lengthy
and positive report on emerging suborbital markets. The Senate
and House both have pending legislation that directly involves
the regulation and support of suborbital spaceflight.
Challenges remain. The road is always unclear; financing is always
a challenge; operations need to mature; and the industry might
fail to realize its promise.
However, a small fast growing industry based upon modular scalable
technologies with short program lifetimes is more likely to revolutionize
spaceflight than an interplanetary program scheduled to produce
results no sooner than 2020, the year I turn 60. I don’t want
to wait that long, not when I know a better way.
Pat Bahn is chief executive officer of TGV Rockets, Inc. and
Washington director of The Suborbital Institute, a trade association
for the emerging sub-orbital industry.
March 2, 2004:
The next Suborbital Action program is scheduled for May 17-18,
2004. This will precede the COMSTAC
Meeting on May 19 & 20, 2004.
February 29, 2004:
Check out the new Frequently Asked Questions
section.
October 27, 2003:
Suborbital Action Day
On October 27, 2003 the SubOrbital Institute will held its third
Suborbital Action Day on Capitol Hill. Executives of suborbital
spaceflight companies and interested members of the public met
with House and Senate offices to discuss upcoming legislation
and regulatory issues affecting commercial suborbital spaceflight.
In past visits to the Hill, the SubOrbital Institute has been
successful in influencing Congress to revitalize the Office of
Space Commercialization and add language on suborbital vehicles
to Senate Resolution 1260. This time, the SubOrbital Institute
followed up on those successes while adding a new agenda item:
support for the recently introduced HR 3245, the Commercial
Space Act of 2003. HR 3245 contains many positive items, in
the view of Suborbital Institute, and will help enable the development
of a commercial human spaceflight industry in the United States.
If you want to speak to lawmakers about the development of commercial
human spaceflight and help promote the opportunity for ordinary
Americans to fly in space, contact us about future Suborbital
Action Days. We invite interested parties to get in touch with
us, so that we may add you to our scheduling. Email edwright2000@hotmail.com
with your name, contact information, and a brief bio. We will
get in touch to provide you with more information.
February 10, 2003 :
Love & Rockets
Read Jeff Foust's report on a breakfast and briefing campaign
on Capitol Hill by the Suborbital Institute a few days before
Valentine's Day (hence the title of the program) :
Suborbital’s
ascending trajectory: Once dismissed as a dead end, reusable suborbital
spacecraft are finally getting respect - by Jeff Foust
- The Space Review April 14, 2003
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