News Conference With Winners of NASA’s Commercial Crew
Development Program To Take Place At KSC Thursday
As President Obama and Americans nationwide honor the historic
accomplishments of the retiring Space Shuttle, an exciting new era
of commercial spaceflight is being readied. Thursday morning, NASA
will hold a press conference at Kennedy Space Center with
commercial space pioneers. “Once the Space Shuttle retires
this year, the next vehicle to carry astronauts into space from
Florida’s Space Coast will be a commercial spacecraft –
and this marks a historic change, perhaps the biggest in NASA's
fifty-year history,” said Bretton Alexander, President of the
Commercial Spaceflight Federation.
Clockwise From Upper Left: SpaceX Dragon, Blue Origin OSV,
Boeing CST, Sierra Navada Corp Dream Chaser
America’s space program received a huge boost earlier this
month when NASA awarded $269 million in competitive agreements to
four pioneering commercial space companies who are developing the
capability to take crews to low Earth orbit commercially: Blue
Origin, The Boeing Company, Sierra Nevada Corporation, and SpaceX.
The program will create thousands of jobs across the United States,
including a significant number in Florida. Company executives and
senior NASA officials will be participating in a press conference
at Kennedy Space Center at 1100 EDT on Thursday, April 28.
Participating in the news event will be:
- Rob Meyerson, President and Program Manager, Blue Origin.
- John Elbon, VP and Program Manager Commercial Crew
Transportation, the Boeing Company.
- Mark Sirangelo, Chairman, Sierra Nevada Corporation Space
Systems.
- Garrett Reisman, Senior Engineer, SpaceX and former NASA
Astronaut.
- Phil McAlister, Acting Director of Commercial Spaceflight
Development, NASA Headquarters.
- Ed Mango, Program Manager of Commercial Crew Program, NASA
Kennedy Space Center.
“These private companies are building and testing real
spaceships that will inaugurate a whole new kind of space
race,” Alexander (pictured) continued. "NASA's Commercial
Crew Program is on par with the government Airmail Act that spurred
the growth of early aviation and led to today’s passenger
airline industry, which generates billions of dollars annually for
the American economy.”
“Commercial spaceflight is about innovation, inspiration
and jobs,” noted Eric Anderson, Chairman of the Commercial
Spaceflight Federation. “We’re at the forefront of
major innovation, and the commercial spaceflight industry can serve
as an example to the world of the power of American
entrepreneurship. We are really at the threshold of something truly
transformative. We’ve seen numerous markets open ranging from
NASA missions and space tourism, to scientific research.”
John Gedmark, Executive Director of the Commercial Spaceflight
Federation stated, “Commercial spaceflight is a great deal
for the American taxpayer. NASA will no longer have to send money
to Russia to buy seats for our astronauts. We can spend that money
to create jobs here at home instead.”
Gedmark concluded, “We’ll finally be able to realize
the sci-fi future people have been dreaming about, one that
inspired an entire generation of dreamers and innovators. People
are again imagining a future like we saw in the landmark film
‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, where private spacecraft
offered frequent flights into space. This is going to be one of the
most exciting stories of the 21st century, and we are just at the
beginning of that story.”