UPDATE August 2007

OKLAHOMA SPACE ALLIANCE

A Chapter of the National Space Society

Oklahoma Space Alliance NSS Update, August 2007

August Meeting; Change of plan:

            Oklahoma Space Alliance will meet at 2:30 pm, NOT 3:00 p.m., on Saturday, August 18 at the TGV Rockets office, 2420 Springer Drive in Norman, Suite 100, north of the corner of 24th Avenue SW and Lindsey. We will hear about their successful engine test, and perhaps some of their plans.
            After visiting TGV rockets, we will adjourn for a potluck dinner at the Koszoru's house, 514 Fenwick Court in Norman.. Prospective members are welcome. Tom Koszoru will be showing us the possibilities of the NSS Island Second Life. (Second Life is a virtual 3‑D world. See http://secondlife.com for details.)
            Directions: To get to TGV rockets take the Lindsey Street East exit off I-35, turn north/left at the first light on 24th Avenue SW, and west/left at Springer Drive (about one block).
            To get the Koszoru's from TGV rockets, go back to I-35: head east on Springer, south on 24th Avenue SW, and west on Lindsey, then north on I-35. Then take the Main Street west exit off I-35, proceed west past the Sooner Fashion Mall, and turn right/north at 36th Street, then right/east on Rambling Oaks (about half a mile north of Main Street). Fenwick Court is the third street on the left. Tom's house is the last on the left side.

Between Meetings Activities

            Syd Henderson and Claire McMurray attended the August 15 meeting of the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Agency board. There, Bill Khourie reported that Armadillo Aerospace has postponed their scheduled R&D testing by a week, in order to go over their procedures in light of the tragic accident at Scaled Composites on July 26. He expects that there will be several more tests, because John Carmack likes the Oklahoma Spaceport facility.
            Spaceport personnel will meet with Homeland Security technical personnel in Sept. or Oct. to discuss security procedures. Apparently our spaceport will be a “template” for others. Progress on the spaceport security fence has been held up while the paperwork for the FAA grant funding the north 5000 feet was converted from wording for a city-owned facility to wording for a state-owned facility. Homeland Security is funding the biometric security gates and the “phase 3” security work; the state is funding the “dirt work:” moving trees, water, & dirt. Plans and specifications will have to be approved by the state’s Properties and Facilities department, which is in charge of all construction on state-owned property.
            An aircraft maintenance facility is to locate at the spaceport (which is also an airport); this should help in receiving federal grants, some of
which depend on the number of airplanes based at a facility.
            The OSIDA board voted to proceed with discussions related to the Aerospace Corporation (probably www.aero.org/) proposal for equipment, software and infrastructure specifications for the OSIDA operations center.
            Most interesting: NASA is proposing to develop experiment racks which can be swapped for the passenger facilities in RocketPlane’s horizontal launch/horizontal landing suborbital vehicle. NASA would include OSIDA as a co-grantee; OSIDA would provide an in-kind contribution of OSIDA facilities (no charge to or from NASA). However, the program is not yet funded.

Respectfully submitted,
Claire McMurray

Oklahoma Space Alliance Officers, 2007 (Area Code 405)

Tom Koszoru, President                                     366-1797 (H)
John Northcutt, Vice-President                           390-3476 (H)
Syd Henderson, Secretary & Outreach Editor    321-4027 (H)
Tim Scott, Treasurer                                           740-7549 (H)
Claire McMurray, Update Editor      329-4326 (H/Ans. machine) 863-6173 (C/no messages please)

OSA E-mail Addresses and Web Site:

[email protected] (Claire McMurray).
[email protected] (Heidi and Tom Koszoru)
[email protected] (Syd Henderson)
[email protected] (Tim Scott)
[email protected] (John Northcutt)
[email protected] (Steve Galpin)
[email protected] (Nancy and David Craig).

Update is edited by Claire McMurray
E-mail for OSA should be sent to [email protected]. OSA members who wish to have their e-mail addresses printed in Outreach, and people wishing space-related materials e-mailed to them should contact Syd.