Highlighting a year full of major space
news, the Space Frontier Foundation, America?s leading edge space
organization, will be holding its annual conference aboard the majestic Queen
Mary ocean liner in Long Beach California, Columbus Day weekend, October
8-10.
The event, long a gathering place for the leaders of the Alternative Space
movement, will highlight the incredible achievements of the new space pioneers
who are building and flying a new generation of rocketships, while laying out
a vision for America and the world that builds on recent announcements of a
Return to the Moon and the human exploration of Mars.
“This is the conference of the year if you are at all interested or involved
in today?s next generation space program,” said the Foundation?s Rick
Tumlinson. “this conference is where the who?s who of what is to come gather.
It isn?t a passive group of fans or academics giving boring lectures on
someday dreams. The people who attend are here because they not only believe
in opening the space frontier, but are doing so themselves.”
Sprinkled throughout with talks by well known space personalities and movers,
the weekend begins with an all day session co-hosted by the Space Access
Society and featuring Alternative Space transportation firms, from grass roots
X-Prize contenders to multi-million dollar launch companies. The day will be
punctuated by a luncheon panel of financiers and investors will discuss the
ins and outs of money issues relating to space companies. Friday night a new
generation will take the floor, literally, as the Queen?s main hall is
transformed into a space discoteque. The team that brought you Yuri?s Night
and other youth oriented organizations will host the Foundation?s first space
party and dance.
Saturday?s programming includes a showcase of alternative space firms building
space hotels and other new space businesses, to a discussion of Hollywood and
media in space, to talks on how you can get into space yourself, and the big
picture of where this is all leading ? the human settlement of space. That
evening the Foundation will hold its annual awards banquet. A gala affair
honourin g those who have made real breakthroughs in the opening of space,
presented a compelling future in the media and the people who have worked each
day to make a difference. Sunday sessions will focus on leading edge ideas and
culminate in a town hall meeting and workshop on how to expand and accelerate
this important movement.
Concluded Tumlinson: “Following within days of Burt Rutan and others X-Prize
flights, this conference is the place to be to hear the inside stories, meet
the movers and hear about what is coming next on the space frontier!”
