Minutes of November 2021 Oklahoma Space Alliance Meeting
Oklahoma Space Alliance met November 13 at the McMurray’s house. Attending in person were Adam Hemphill, Tom and Heidi Koszoru, Claire McMurray. John Northcutt, Tim Scott, Dave Sheely, and Syd Henderson. We had no Zoom attendees and Clifford McMurray was unable to attend. OSA President Dave 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/Update2111.pdf so I’ll cover the details that aren’t covered there.
We watched a video on a Blue Origin/Sierra Space plan to build a space station that will be used for commercial marketing. We also watched a video on Starlab, a joint venture by Nanoracks and Lockheed Martin to build their own commercial space station. There are a number of such ventures being prepared for after the International Space Station is decommissioned.
We watched a video on a next-generation spacesuit being prepared by Collins Aerospace. NASA is turning to the private sector to produce new spacesuits for Gateway and the Artemis program. We watched a NASA video on the development of new Space Station space suits to be used on the ISS, Gateway and Artemis moon base. [It’s not clear to me whether Collins has actually been commissioned by NASA or whether they are developing spacesuits for other projects. Clearly the astronauts on the new commercial space stations will need suppliers.]
We watched a video on Russia’s Soyuz return capsule rocket firing prematurely and changing the orientation of the ISS by 57 degrees. The correct orientation was restored within 30 minutes. This is not to be confused with an earlier module firing that turned the ISS earlier this year. This Soyuz was returning the film crew from the ISS and another astronaut.
We watched a video of the launch of Shenzhou-13 carrying three astronauts to the Chinese Space Station Tiangong.
We watched a video of Poland signing onto the Artemis accords.
We watched a video on Russian concerns that the Starlink network may be used to hijack cruise missiles used to carry nukes. Along those lines, we watched a video by George Friedman on space warfare. He notes that massing of troops for an invasion will not last very long if observed from space, and all ships can be seen. He thinks the computer age is creating opportunities for smaller nations and is for some reason obsessed with Poland becoming a future space power.
This was the meeting at which we nominated 2022 officers. Clifford McMurray is running for President, Dave Sheely for Vice-President (so they’re switching again), Syd Henderson for Secretary, and Tim Scott for Treasurer.
Syd is to place Heinlein Award nominations in January Outreach.
We have $855.47 in checking account and $267 in cash for a total of $1122.47.
Minutes by OSA Secretary Syd Henderson
Contact person for Oklahoma Space Alliance is Claire McMurray.
PO Box 1003
Norman, OK 73070
Webmaster is Syd Henderson.
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