Obama draws industry into space launches

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It’s a new day for space – and for American industry.

President Barack Obama outlined his vision for the future of the space program, placing explicit emphasis on the new role that innovation in the commercial sector will play.

During the speech at the Kennedy Space Center, Obama tried to ease fears about his “grand plan” for the space program.

“No one is more committed to human space exploration than I am,” he said. “We will have more astronauts in space in the next decade, and they will be going farther, faster and staying longer.”

He defended the decision to end the Constellation program that would take humans to the moon.

“To put it bluntly, we’ve been there,” he said. “And there are a lot of other places to go in space.”

The president said he no longer wanted to put specific destinations in place for the space program – instead he wanted to achieve the goal of human exploration, even having people live indefinitely in space.[...]

Symposium agenda

Thursday, April 15, 2010

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Symposium blog

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Companies that protect eyes from solar radiation, digital fly-by-wire technology and new technology to guide aircraft were inducted into the Space Technology Hall of Fame this afternoon during the final day of the Space Symposium.[...]

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