May Meeting
Oklahoma Space Alliance will meet at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, May 14, 2016 at Earl's Rib Palace, 920 SW 25th St, Moore, OK. This is between the 1-35 West Frontage Road and Telegraph Road, a couple of blocks south of Harry Bears. Telephone number is 793-7427, or call Syd at 365-8983.
Saturday May 14, 2016
Program
Place: Earl’s Rib Palace
Moore Oklahoma
2:00-5:00 PM
Minutes of April Meeting
Oklahoma Space Alliance met at Earl’s Rib Palace in Moore on April 9, 2016. Attending were Steve, Karen and Bryan Swift, Russ Davoren, Syd Henderson, Jasmine Kendricks, Claire and Clifford McMurray, Nico Cinocco, John Northcutt, Don Robinson, Tim Scott, Dave Sheely, Rob Stanley and Rosemary Swift. Our guest speaker for the meeting was Michael Coffman from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, and he brought two children.
There were eight FAA launch events in 2015, of which seven were successful, the exception being the loss of one of SpaceX’s resupply missions to the International Space Station. There were three licensed re-entries, all by SpaceX. (Orbital ATK’s resupply missions burn up in the atmosphere.) There were also three suborbital permits, two to Blue Origin and one to SpaceX. There were four launches from the United States to the Space Station, three by SpaceX and one by Orbital ATK. [Orbital had its own launch failure in 2014 and didn’t really get back to launching until well into 2015.--Syd]
Blue Origin re-launched its New Shepard rocket on April 2, and we watched its third flight.
The Bigelow expandable space module was attached to the Space Station in its compressed state. [It will be expanded on May 26 with live coverage on NASA TV.--Syd] Bigelow wants to have free-flying space hotels to be destinations for commercial launches.
We watched a video on SpaceX’s landing capabilities. They plan to have one-third of their landings on land and the rest in the ocean.
We watched a Bob Zubrin video. He mentions that the most important skills for a two-man crew landing on Mars are (1) the ability to fix things and (2) field geology. He didn’t mention the ability to grow potatoes.
We have $1075.89 in our checking account and $207 in cash.
After the meeting, fourteen of us went to Claire and Clifford McMurray’s house for a pizza party to celebrate Yuri’s Night and manned spaceflight. Attending were Jasmine, Rosemary, Dave Sheely, Tim Scott, Kay Fiel, Bill Sheely, Steve, Karen, Bryan, Nico, John and Syd, in addition to our hosts.
--Minutes by OSA Secretary Syd Henderson
Note on OSIDA Meeting:
OSA members Syd Henderson, Rosemary Swift, and Claire McMurray attended the May 11th board meeting of OSIDA (Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority). They discovered that the “space sycamore” seedling tree received from Yuri’s Night several years ago, and donated by OSA to Spaceport Oklahoma in Burns Flat, is still growing well despite recent storms. Also, the FAA no longer limits the spaceport to horizontal take-off and landing, provided a VTVL system is deemed safe enough for the public. --Note by Claire McMurray
Also, Former board chairman Alan Goodbary has left the board and Ben Robinson has replaced him. Other board members attending the meeting were Mr. Cunningham, Mr. Cox, General Edwards and Mr. Wetakam.--Syd
Contact person for Oklahoma Space Alliance is Claire McMurray.
PO Box 1003
Norman, OK 73070
Webmaster is Syd Henderson.
Copyright ©2016 by Oklahoma Space Alliance.