{"id":19540,"date":"2015-12-11T00:04:53","date_gmt":"2015-12-10T16:04:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/lawmakers-geek-out-over-washington-states-rising-space-industry\/"},"modified":"2015-12-11T00:04:53","modified_gmt":"2015-12-10T16:04:53","slug":"lawmakers-geek-out-over-washington-states-rising-space-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/lawmakers-geek-out-over-washington-states-rising-space-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers geek out over Washington state\u2019s rising space industry"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Image:
Employees at Blue Origin\u2019s headquarters in Kent, Wash., cheer as they watch the landing of the company\u2019s New Shepard test spaceship on Nov. 23. \u201cHow do we steal that video?\u201d Lt. Gov. Brad Owen joked after watching a clip showing the celebration. (Credit: Blue Origin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Washington state legislators got an introduction to the state\u2019s space industry today at Seattle\u2019s Museum of Flight \u2013 and voiced amazement at how much is going on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel so illiterate in this field, it\u2019s unbelievable,\u201d state Sen. Mike Hewitt, R-Walla Walla, remarked at one point during today\u2019s meeting of the Legislative Committee on Economic Development and International Relations. Afterward, Hewitt said he knew \u201c100 percent\u201d more about the field than he did at the start of the hearing.<\/p>\n

Previously<\/strong>: Three reasons why Seattle\u2019s big on space, and three frontiers to watch<\/h4>\n

State Sen. Maralyn Chase, D-Shoreline, marveled when she heard Aerojet Rocketdyne executive Roger Myers list all the missions his company in which his company has played a part, ranging from the Apollo missions to the moon, to the space shuttle program, to robotic missions that have visited every planet (yes, including Pluto).<\/p>\n

\u201cI would wager that most of the people in this state do not know what you\u2019re doing in Redmond,\u201d Chase told Myers.<\/p>\n

That was the point of today\u2019s hearing, presided over by Lt. Gov. Brad Owen: to let legislators know that there\u2019s much more than Boeing to the state\u2019s profile in the aerospace industry.<\/p>\n

The Washington State Space Coalition lists 30 ventures with connections to outer space and the Evergreen State. The list includes billionaire-backed ventures such as Jeff Bezos\u2019 Blue Origin and Paul Allen\u2019s Vulcan Aerospace \u2013 plus Planetary Resources and Kymeta, which have received funding from Charles Simonyi and Bill Gates, respectively. The list also includes Hobart Machined Products, which manufactures parts for military and civilian space efforts but employs just 10 people.<\/p>\n

\"Legislative
Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, second from right, examines a door assembly that was made for Sea Launch in the 1990s by Hobart Machined Products in Washington state. Officials at the hearing included, from left, Mike Hewitt, Karen Fraser, Curtis King, Randi Becker, Owen and Bob Hasegawa. (GeekWire photo by Alan Boyle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That critical mass of business activity, and the backing of billionaires and venture capitalists, are among the reasons why Washington is becoming a space hub, said Joe Landon, the Seattle-based chairman of Space Angels Network.<\/p>\n

Another reason is the region\u2019s high level of engineering talent: Landon pointed out that \u201cthe software is becoming more valuable than the hardware\u201d in a field where smaller satellites are providing bigger capabilities. SpaceX\u2019s billionaire founder, Elon Musk, admitted as much when he opened up a Seattle engineering office earlier this year: \u201cA lot of you guys don\u2019t seem to want to move to L.A.,\u201d Musk said.<\/p>\n

Space Angel Network\u2019s figures show that $17 billion in non-governmental funding has been invested in commercial space ventures over the past decade. Landon said 2015 is shaping up as the biggest year yet, with about $700 million projected to be put into startups.<\/p>\n

\"pluto\"
\nScience journalist Alan Boyle<\/strong> is the author of “The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made A Big Difference.”<\/p>\n

The hearing occasionally took on the tone of a science class. For example, when Myers touched on the New Horizons mission to Pluto, Sen. Bob Hasegawa, D-Seattle, couldn\u2019t resist asking whether Myers thought Pluto was a planet. \u201cIt was a planet when we launched, and therefore in my heart it will always be a planet,\u201d Myers replied.<\/p>\n

During a later exchange, Sen. Karen Keiser, D-Kent, asked why there were no launch facilities in the state. Myers explained that Florida, Texas and Southern California were closer to the equator, which makes it easier to put payloads into orbit from there. \u201cI\u2019m sorry, but we can\u2019t fight gravity,\u201d Myers said.<\/p>\n

The main topic of discussion was how to nurture the state\u2019s space industry. Every one of the speakers called for giving commercial spacecraft manufacturers the same tax breaks that commercial airplane manufacturers get.<\/p>\n

During this year\u2019s legislative session, state Rep. Jeff Morris, D-Mount Vernon, introduced just such a measure, known as HB 2226. The idea could be considered during the session that starts next month. By some accounts, the impact on tax revenue would be about $1.1 million, which amounts to less than a hundredth of a percent of the state\u2019s $38.2 billion operating budget for 2015-2017.<\/p>\n

<\/span> Weekly, monthly no less, we are recruited by other states.<\/span><\/p>\n

Owen\u2019s House-Senate committee meets two or three times a year to study economic trends but does not deal directly with legislation. Nevertheless, several of the committee members said extending the tax breaks would be worth it to keep Washington\u2019s space ventures in the state. \u201cThis is protecting our investment,\u201d said state Rep. J.T. Wilcox, R-Yelm.<\/p>\n

Space industry representatives also called for more efforts to promote education in science and technology, plus more support for continuing education in aerospace.<\/p>\n

As Washington\u2019s space industry grows, the financial enticements from other states are growing as well, said Rosemary Brester, president and CEO of Hobart Machined Products. \u201cWeekly, monthly no less, we are recruited by other states,\u201d she told the legislators.<\/p>\n

Brester said it was just as important to support bigger companies \u2013 such as Aerojet Rocketdyne and Boeing \u2013 as it was to grow the smaller companies. After all, she said, smaller companies like hers depend on the region\u2019s larger companies to buy their goods and services.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they\u2019re not here, we\u2019re all going to go,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

After the hearing, Wilcox made it sound as if the political science required to support the state\u2019s space industry can sometimes get as complex as, well, rocket science. \u201cThere may not be a ton we can do to help,\u201d he said, \u201cbut there\u2019s a ton we can do to destroy the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Employees at Blue Origin\u2019s headquarters in Kent, Wash., cheer as they watch the landing of the company\u2019s New Shepard test spaceship on Nov. 23. \u201cHow do we steal that video?\u201d Lt. Gov. Brad Owen joked after watching a clip showing the celebration. (Credit: Blue Origin) Washington state legislators got an introduction to the state\u2019s space […]<\/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":[509,291,4467,4949],"class_list":["post-19540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-commercial-space","tag-politics","tag-vulcan-aerospace"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19540"}],"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=19540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19540\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}