Oklahoma Space Alliance

OKLAHOMA SPACE ALLIANCE

A Chapter of the National Space Society

Who We Are:

        Oklahoma Space Alliance is the central Oklahoma Chapter of the National Space Society, one of the largest space advocacy groups in the country, and has existed for more than 20 years. Our purposes include promoting the exploration and development of space, educating the public to current events in space and the usefulness of an active space program, all with the intent of promoting a space-faring civilization.
        Oklahoma Space Alliance hosted the 23^rd Annual International Space Development Conference on May 27-31, 2004. We previously hosted three Regional Space Development Conferences, assisted with earlier ISDCs, put displays in malls, hosted lectures, sponsored television interviews, hosted viewing nights, worked with other space-oriented groups and maintained local contact with the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority.
        Oklahoma Space Alliance helped out with the 2007 International Space Development Conference which was hosted by the National Space Society of North Texas in Dallas Texas from May 24 - 28, 2007, and put together a commemorative exhibit for the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11. This exhibit ran through July of 2009. (See below for details.)
        We do a bimonthly newsletter called Outreach and a monthly e-mail newsletterUpdate to keep our members informed of current developments in space and upcoming events they might be interested in. Editor of Outreach is Syd Henderson and editor of Update is C;ifford McMurray. Clifford also does an Update most months when Outreach is published.

Oklahoma Space Alliance is now on Facebook at Oklahoma Space Alliance

April 2026 Update (pdf format) (Information to be presented at April meeting)

March 2026 Outreach (pdf format)

Space Priorities (pdf format)

Outreach & Update

Outreach and Update are the newsletters of Oklahoma Space Alliance. Outreach is published in odd-numbered months and is sent both by post and by e-mail.Update is published in even-number months and is sent by e-mail. The December Update is often replaced by a meeting announcement election ballot, in which case the November minutes will be published in the January Outreach. You must be a member of Oklahoma Space Alliance to receive Outreach by post unless you are on our courtesy list. To receive newsletters by e-mail, contact Syd Henderson at the address at the bottom of the page. The newsletters listed below are slightly edited to turn them into web pages.
Outreach is edited by Syd Henderson, and Update by Clifford McMurray (except the June 2024 was by Adam Hemphill)

April Meeting

Note: we're moving the pizza party to May since several members won't be able to make it on April 11.

Oklahoma Space Alliance will meet at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 11, at the location next to Norman Computers on West Main in Norman. Prospective members are welcome.
The meeting room is in the Cyber Hall and Gaming Lounge next to Norman Computers. Please enter through the Cyber Hall door. The Cyber Hall is at 914 W Main St, opposite Norman High School. The phone number is (405) 292-9501. To get to the meeting space from points north, take Highway 77 exit off I-35, and continue south until you reach Main Street. Norman Computers is about a block and a half west of this on the south (left) side of a small mall.

Saturday, April 11, 2:00 p.m.

Introductions and review of Space events this past month
What’s Happening in Space, News, Pictures, and Videos approximately one hour. See the April Update at http://osa.nss.org before the meeting for items to be discussed.
Break
Oklahoma Space Alliance Chapter Business Discussion

Review OSA treasurer’s report.
Minutes of March Meeting
Yuri’s Night
Plans for 2026

Chat

Minutes of March 14 Oklahoma Space Alliance Meeting

        Oklahoma Space Alliance met March 14, 2026, at the Cyber Hall and Gaming Lounge at Norman Computers in Norman, Oklahoma. Attending were Clifford McMurray, Adam Hemphill, Mark Deaver (briefly), John Northcutt, Tim Scott, Dave Sheely and Syd Henderson, with Robin Scott joining us by phone. OSA President Clifford McMurray. presided over the meeting He did an Update discussing links to material covered in the meeting and this is online https://osa.nss.org/Update2603.pdf so I’ll cover the details that aren’t covered there.
        We are still waiting for Artemis II to go back to the launch pad. Syd remarked that the Artemis launches seem to be referred to alternately with Roman numerals or Arabic numerals depending on the source. [The same seems to have been true for the Gemini and Apollo missions. Hence the movie Apollo 13 although the mission patch says Apollo XIII. From that I conclude NASA itself uses Roman numerals, as confirmed by the Artemis II mission patch and who am I to say otherwise?--Syd]
        NASA is revising its Moon plans. They are not talking about using SLS beyond Artemis V. There is speculation that the office handling the Lunar Gateway will be transformed into a lunar base office, [Gateway is probably dead.]
        ISS will continue for at least two years beyond its previous decommission date to keep a permanent human presence in space and allow time to transfer to commercial space stations. I note that this means a permanent American human presence; the Chinese may well intend to have their own.
        The impact of DART with Dimorphos also changed the orbital speed of its parent Didymos around the Sun by several microns per second. The orbital period of Dimorphos around Didymos was changed by thirty minutes. I don’t know how much the change to Didymos changes the orbital period around the Sun.
        The upgrade to Artemis IV was not going to happen because we now have viable alternatives. Specifically, the Centaur V upper stage.
        A science payload on MTN (Mars Telecommunications Network) is not precluded but not necessary.
        Astrolab/Interlune anticipate a fleet of lunar harvesters. Is Astrobot a part of Astrolab?
        RocketLab may have a mission to Venus this year, perhaps via Neutron rocket. But this may get delayed because Neutron is.
        Vast will have the sixth (?) private mission to the ISS and Haven-1 next year.
        The March 4 Kairos flight failed two minutes after launch. One of the previous Kairos made it to orbit but the satellites were lost. The March 4 flight was the third failure of Kairos in three tries.
        Mauve, the first commercial space telescope, was spawned out of University College in London.
        “The Year of the Horse calls for the vigor of a galloping steed:” commentator on Shenzhou 21. We watched videos from the Tiangong Space Station.
        After the meeting on April 11, we will adjourn to Kip McMurray’s for a Yuri’s Night pizza party.
        Project Hail Mary debuts on March 20. Shall we put a group together a week later to see it?
        We watched a video on Haven-2, VAST’s project to replace the ISS. They start off with four modules linked in a row that will separate to form an X-shaped space station around a central core. They can attach several modules to each wing.
        We watched a video on SpaceX unveiling VAST’s Haven-1.
        Vast’s Spinning Stick will use 6-8 modules end-to-end to generate artificial gravity to go to Mars.
        We watched a video on life within SpaceX’s Dragon capsule. Dragon has seven launch spots in Florida alone.

Minutes By OSA Secretary Syd Henderson

April 2026 Update (pdf format) (Information to be presented at April meeting)

March 2026 Outreach (pdf format)

Minutes of January 2026 Meeting
Minutes of February 2026 Meeting
Minutes of March 2026 Meeting

Minutes of previous meetings

Contact person for Oklahoma Space Alliance is Clifford McMurray
PO Box 1003
Norman, OK 73070
Webmaster is Syd Henderson.
Copyright 2026 Oklahoma Space Alliance.