Search this Site

President's Message

By Steve Bartlett

Our chapter held its twenty-fifth anniversary banquet on July 19^th at the Proud Bird restaurant near LAX. The event featured guest speakers Dr. Scott Pace from NASA Headquarters and Dr. Richard Van Allen from TransOrbital Corporation. Dr. Pace discussed new initiatives within the space agency, while Dr. Van Allen described the privately-funded Trailblazer lunar mission that Transorbital is putting together. OASIS founder and past president, Terry Savage, also provided some perspectives on where we've been and where we may be going in the next several years.

It was good to see old members and new gathered together, swapping stories and ideas, arguing over private versus public funding of space projects, debating over whether to go back to the Moon or onto Mars as our next space goal, and discussing a wide range of related subjects. The banquet room itself could best be described as "cozy" for the 30+ people assembled, but the company was friendly and in good spirits.

I'd like to extend a heartfelt thanks to the speakers and to the volunteers who helped us pull this off, particularly to Bob Gounley and Karin Ward. Bob created the flyers, took care of mailing them, and contacted past members to invite them to the anniversary. Karin handled the tickets, contacted people about menu selections, and served as the "meet and greet" hostess in the banquet room while attendees enjoyed hors d'oeuvres in a separate part of the facility.

Bits and pieces from the dog days of summer and space

I write this a few days after Alpha space station cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko married his earthbound fiance in a proxy ceremony. Malenchenko was connected via videolink to the event in Houston. The happy couple will delay their honeymoon until the groom returns to Earth in a couple of months.

From the perspective of someone who grew up amidst the 1960's space race and who worked on the Alpha space station when it was an American response to the Soviet Mir station, this is all very surreal.

This is also a few days after the passing of Chris Pancratz, head of the NSS Executive Committee. Chris was a good and conscientious man, a tireless worker in the space advocacy movement, and someone who got things done. He led by example and will be sorely missed.