{"id":19248,"date":"2016-09-09T17:15:13","date_gmt":"2016-09-09T09:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/were-go-for-liftoff-commercial-spaceflight-federation-sets-a-new-course-in-seattle\/"},"modified":"2016-09-09T17:15:13","modified_gmt":"2016-09-09T09:15:13","slug":"were-go-for-liftoff-commercial-spaceflight-federation-sets-a-new-course-in-seattle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/were-go-for-liftoff-commercial-spaceflight-federation-sets-a-new-course-in-seattle\/","title":{"rendered":"We\u2019re go for liftoff: Commercial Spaceflight Federation sets a new course in Seattle"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_150487\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-150487\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-150487 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_4691-620x413.jpg\" alt=\"SpaceX and Space Needle\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_4691-620x413.jpg 620w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_4691-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/IMG_4691.jpg 1296w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-150487\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">During SpaceX\u2019s Seattle announcement about an internet satellite network in January 2015, the company\u2019s logo lit up Fisher Pavilion at Seattle Center. (GeekWire photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Commercial Spaceflight Federation set the stage for new leadership as well as new initiatives during&nbsp;its meeting in Seattle this week, says the industry group\u2019s president.<\/p>\n<p>CSF President Eric Stallmer told GeekWire that the meeting signaled the Emerald City\u2019s rising status amid a rising wave of entrepreneurship focused on the space frontier.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSeattle has really become a hub city for commercial space activity,\u201d he said, \u201cso it\u2019s really a no-brainer for us to come here. \u2026 I foresee more companies developing and coming up to Seattle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Those&nbsp;companies will follow in the footsteps of ventures such as Blue Origin (founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos), Vulcan Aerospace (funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen), Planetary Resources (which counts Google execs and Virgin billionaire Richard Branson among its founding investors) and Spaceflight Industries (backed by Allen\u2019s Vulcan Capital and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel\u2019s Mithril Capital, among others).<\/p>\n<p>Stallmer said Seattle\u2019s investment base, plus the talent base fostered by such companies as Boeing, Microsoft and Amazon, added to the region\u2019s natural appeal.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Commercial Spaceflight Federation\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gQ5QWC7iZbY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The Washington, D.C.-based Commercial Spaceflight Federation was founded a decade ago, in the wake of the privately funded flights of the SpaceShipOne rocket plane, to nurture up-and-comers in the commercial space industry.&nbsp;Its more than 70 members&nbsp;include Seattle space ventures as well as SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, Bigelow Aerospace, Moon Express and Sierra Nevada Corp.<\/p>\n<p>During this week\u2019s meeting, planetary scientist Alan Stern was chosen to take the helm as chairman, Stallmer said. Stern is a researcher at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., as well as principal investigator for NASA\u2019s New Horizons mission to Pluto and the Kuiper Belt.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_273706\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-273706\" style=\"width: 249px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-273706\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/160909-stern-249x300.jpg\" alt=\"Alan Stern\" width=\"249\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/160909-stern-249x300.jpg 249w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/160909-stern-200x241.jpg 200w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/160909-stern-83x100.jpg 83w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/160909-stern.jpg 462w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 249px) 100vw, 249px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-273706\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alan Stern (Credit: NASA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Stern\u2019s&nbsp;ties to the commercial space industry include roles as chief scientist for World View Enterprises, co-founder and CEO of Uwingu and co-founder of the CSF\u2019s Suborbital Applications Researchers Group. Over the years, he has&nbsp;been a consultant to Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, Moon Express and other space ventures&nbsp;\u2013 and served as NASA\u2019s associate administrator for science in 2007-2008.<\/p>\n<p>Stern&nbsp;will take over the chairmanship from Frank DiBello, president and CEO of Space Florida.<\/p>\n<p>Stallmer mentioned two initiatives that came to the fore during the Seattle meeting: One is a plan to pay tribute to Patti Grace Smith, who blazed a trail for private-sector spaceflight as the Federal Aviation Administration\u2019s associate administrator for commercial space transportation between 1997 and 2008.<\/p>\n<p>Smith passed away in June at the age of 68 after battling pancreatic cancer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe was just a great champion for us,\u201d Stallmer said. The CSF plans to establish a scholarship program in her name, to fund education and travel for students interested in the commercial space industry, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Another initiative involves coordination between commercial air traffic and the rising number of commercial space launches. As more&nbsp;spaceports ramp up for business, some air carriers have expressed concern about the potential for route changes and flight delays.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not going to let up,\u201d Stallmer said of the rise in launches. \u201cThere are only going to be more. \u2026 We want to get ahead of this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stallmer said the CSF plans to increase&nbsp;its contacts with airlines and aviation officials to address the challenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During SpaceX\u2019s Seattle announcement about an internet satellite network in January 2015, the company\u2019s logo lit up Fisher Pavilion at Seattle Center. (GeekWire photo) The Commercial Spaceflight Federation set the stage for new leadership as well as new initiatives during&nbsp;its meeting in Seattle this week, says the industry group\u2019s president. CSF President Eric Stallmer told [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4338,291],"class_list":["post-19248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-commercial-spaceflight-federation","tag-commercial-space"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19248"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19248\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}