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Minutes of August 10 Oklahoma Space Alliance Meeting

        Oklahoma Space Alliance met August 10, 2024, at the Cyber Hall and Gaming Lounge at Norman Computers in Norman, Oklahoma. Attending were Adam Hemphill, Mark Deaver, Steve Marino, Kip and Claire McMurray, Jackson O’Neal (from OU-SEDS), Dave Sheely, and Syd Henderson. OSA President Adam Hemphill presided over the meeting Adam presented an update containing links to material covered in the meeting and this is online at https://osa.nss.org/Update2408.pdf so I’ll cover the details that aren’t covered there.
        At the time of the meeting, Starliner (the Boeing Crew Flight Test vehicle) was still attached to the ISS and its two-person crew still aboard the International Space Station. We had a vote on whether we thought they would come back to Earth aboard Starliner, and whether there would be any more Starliner flights, and voted no on both. [Well, Starliner’s crew capsule returned to Earth without them, and the second will be probably be true although Boeing has another flight scheduled for next year.] Steve Marino mentioned that if they make any change in software (which they did so Starliner can operate without astronauts), they have to recertify the whole thing.
        The order to have six people return aboard a Dragon capsule would require delaying revisions, so they’ll probably send a regular Dragon up with two free seats and return Butch and Suni in February.
        The June failure of a Falcon Block 9 was the first for that configuration,
        Adam thinks Boeing should concentrate on their commercial side and getting their 737 fixed while working on the inevitable replacement. Boeing’s pay in Seattle is not competitive there (but might be elsewhere, such as Oklahoma).
        SpaceX is going to build the deorbit vehicle for the ISS, but NASA will operate it. Russia has already said they’ll cease support in 2028.
        We looked at the stock market histories for Intuitive Machines and Rocket Lab.
        We watched a video of ADRAS-J’s inspection flyby of its intended target, a Japanese upper stage.
        Naro-1 was South Korea’s first orbital vehicle in 2013. Their current orbital vehicle is Nuri. [Unlike Naro-1, all of Nuri is built by South Korea.]
        The planet Mercury has patches of graphite on its surface, and it is suspected that deeper in the crust, this becomes diamond.
        We watched a video of the ISS Olympics.
        In contrast with the Chinese booster that was destroyed, the SpaceX booster broke up in a much lower orbit and no debris was produced.

         We currently have $797.67 in the checking account and $267 in cash.
         After the meeting, we watched a 2018 ISDC video of a talk on Moon Direct by Robert Zubrin

--Minutes By OSA Secretary Syd Henderson                                              

    

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