Minutes of February 2021 Oklahoma Space Alliance Meeting
Oklahoma Space Alliance chapter of National Space Society had its regularly scheduled meeting on February 13, 2021. However, due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, we held the meeting online via Zoom. Attending were David Sheely, Clifford and Claire McMurray, Seth Potter, Robin Scott, Tim Scott, and Syd Henderson. OSA president David Sheely presided over the meeting. He did an Update discussing links to material covered in the meeting and this is online at http://osa.nss.org/Update2102.pdf, so I’ll cover the details that aren’t covered there.
We watched a video on Elon Musk becoming the richest man on Earth (passing Jeff Bezos), We watched a video on the landing and explosion of the Starship 9 test vehicle. There was a question as to why SpaceX doesn’t have at least three engines firing so that if one fails, there is sufficient backup. Seth commented that the engines can only be throttled to 60% so the spacecraft would be going too fast to land.
Dave attended a NSS meeting where the comment was made that SpaceX and Bezos are putting more money into innovation than NASA.
We watched a video of the January 13 Falcon 9 CRS 21 landing and recovery. They again had problems with boaters getting too close to the landing site in the Gulf of Mexico.
We watched a video of a proposed Spacebit lander on the Moon.
Jeff Lis sent out to NSS Directors about why Virgin Galactic went so long between tests was because of landing problems. White Knight is showing signs of age.
Eric Sundby of the Space Force Association used to attend OSA meetings.
We watched a video of the Space Force Anthem (this doesn’t seem to be adapted; it’s just entitled that). It sounds like a Russian army anthem.
Business meeting:
Dave sent money for OSA membership and a $100 dollar donation to the Colombian chapter. [It actually had already arrived on the day of the meeting, so I mailed it to Tim.]
Claire: We are in the process of creating a category of NSS Outpost with one full member requited. Others get a $5 special fee.
NSS Chapters Assembly meets at 7:00 p.m. which is a bad time for people on the other side of the world. The German chapter suggested that we hold it at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday (Pacific Time).
Since many of us are getting vaccinated, we may try to go back to in-person meetings in March.
Annual Reports are due on February 15. Syd needs to send a PDF file to Tim.
We have $714.21 in checking account and $267 in Cash for a total of $981.21. This includes $75 for Colombian chapter but not Dave’s donation.
We will attempt to have a potluck in April.
Seth Potter pointed out that some of the videos from our 2004 ISDC are on YouTube.
--Minutes by OSA Secretary Syd Henderson
Contact person for Oklahoma Space Alliance is Claire McMurray.
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