Excerpt:
According to Greg Autry, who teaches economics at UC Irvine and studies the growth of the private space industry, most of these companies aren’t making money. But he estimates that there’s more [...]]]>

Episode: The Madeleine Brand Show for May 10, 2012, By Sanden Totten, KPCC

Excerpt:
According to Greg Autry, who teaches economics at UC Irvine and studies the growth of the private space industry, most of these companies aren’t making money. But he estimates that there’s more than a billion dollars of investment in the field — mostly from big spenders like Elon Musk of Paypal and Virgin’s Richard Branson.

“It is a significant amount of money and it is at the tipping point where more traditional capital is about to flow in. So I think it is over the next five years that we see this little boomlet happen,” Autrey said.

Right now, a very large slice of the industry is based right in California’s Mojave Desert, but “there are a lot of other states — particularly Florida, New Mexico, Virginia — that would like to snap this up from us. This is California’s new business to either make or lose,” according to Autry.

Some states are already luring space companies with big tax breaks. And Florida, Virginia, New Mexico and Texas all have laws on the books to prevent businesses from being sued if they attempt a space flight and something goes wrong — like civilian deaths for example. It’s obviously something every company tries to avoid, but without a guarantee limiting their liability, most companies can’t even get proper insurance.

California doesn’t have a law like this, and it’s really important for companies like Space X, Virgin Galactic and XCor, all currently based in Calif.

One company at the Space Tech Expo is already considering leaving California if it doesn’t pass a similar law. Calif. Senate Bill 2243, the Space Flight Liability and Immunity Act, is sponsored by Assemblyman Steve Knight — his district includes the Mojave Desert. But one aerospace law expert says the bill offers pretty weak protection compared to other states.

Listen to the segment on The Madeleine Brand Show for May 10, 2012, By Sanden Totten, KPCC

MOJAVE, California (May 15, 2012) Mojave Air & Space Port, the world’s premiere civilian flight test center, announced the appointment of Karina Drees to Director of Business Development. In the newly formed role, Drees will provide strategic direction for economic development and marketing initiatives, while working on tenant expansion and retention.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MOJAVE, California (May 15, 2012) Mojave Air & Space Port, the world’s premiere civilian flight test center, announced the appointment of Karina Drees to Director of Business Development. In the newly formed role, Drees will provide strategic direction for economic development and marketing initiatives, while working on tenant expansion and retention.

Drees brings more than 12 years of experience in strategy and business development. She has held management positions for growing technology companies ranging in size from startups to large public companies. Most recently, she was a member of the strategy and positioning team for SRA International, a large defense contractor in Fairfax, VA.

“Karina will be a great addition to the our leadership team,” said Stuart Witt, CEO. “She is an accomplished business development executive with a genuine passion for the unique activities that go on here in Mojave. She will be a strong asset as we expand our aerospace business.

Drees has a BS from Arizona State University and an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management, where she ran the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition. Following MIT, Drees attended the International Space University’s Summer Session Program in Beijing, China. She is a board member of the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition and a judge for the MIT Global Challenge. In addition to her entrepreneurial activities, Drees serves as an SBIR proposal reviewer and panelist for the National Science Foundation.

In 2007, Witt and Drees collaborated to develop an “access to space” action plan for commercial operations of the next generation of space transportation vehicles from Mojave.

#####

About Mojave Air & Space Port

The world’s premiere civilian flight test center is operated by the East Kern Airport District.  Strategically located 90 miles north of Los Angeles in Kern County, California, America’s first inland spaceport is home to a growing number of companies engaged in aerospace and high technology research and development.

Mojave Transportation Museum Foundation presents Plane Crazy Saturday!
A Salute to Armed Forces Day! May 19, 2012 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Free [...]]]> Come out to Mojave Air & Space Port for breakfast or lunch, listen to a great speaker and enjoy some time with other pilots and aviation minded friends!

Mojave Transportation Museum Foundation presents Plane Crazy Saturday!
A Salute to Armed Forces Day! May 19, 2012 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Free admission!
A variety of “Warbirds” will be on display at Plane Crazy Saturday as a Salute to Armed Forces Day!

The Mojave Transportation Museum Foundation is happy to honor all of those serving in America’s Armed Forces today and pay a special tribute to all who have served in the past. Veteran personnel, aircraft and vehicles are invited to participate in this month’s Plane Crazy Saturday!

11 a.m. – EKAD Board Room
Guest Speaker: Russ Stewart, Test Pilot Instructor – National Test Pilot School
U.S. Air Force Veteran
Academic Qualifications
ME, Electrical Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
BE, Electrical Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
USAF Test Pilot School, Distinguished Graduate, Class 74B

Flight Qualifications
Over 8000 hours total time in over 50 types of aircraft
A-10, F-4, A-37, T-33, F-101, 0-2A (combat tour), T-38, UV-18, C-130
Single and multi-engine, Commercial land, Glider, Instrument, CFI – SEL & MEL, CFII

Flight Test Experience
Flight Test Engineer, Tyndall AFB, FL
A-10 Joint Test Force, Performance & Flying Qualities Test Pilot
Chief of Academics, USAF Test Pilot School
Peace Pearl CTF Director
Commander, Test Group, Hill AFB, UT
Chief of Safety, Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards AFB, CA

Professional Affiliations
Member, Society of Experimental Test Pilots

Fly in and display your aircraft for Plane Crazy Saturday! Wen Painter will be on hand in the Voyager Restaurant to sign Tax-exempt forms for pilots.

Aviation Art and Space Art
Aviation collectables for sale
Posters, patches, t-shirts,
Tram rides to T-hangars with Alan Radecki!
Bring the kids! Bring a camera!

All guests are reminded to observe flightline safety rules, including: no touching propellers, no running, no pets, and keep a watchful eye for taxiing aircraft! Thanks! Enjoy a day at Mojave Air & Spaceport!

See you there!

Get nosey about history! Go to: www.mojavemuseum.org

[more] at Mojave Makers is happy to announce that we are now accepting members! We are running our Mojave Makers Months from the 15th to the 15th of each month for the purposes of billing and memberships, so we are currently accepting payments for the Month from May 15th to June 15th.

[more] at Mojave Makers

Bottle-Cap Contact Microphone Class And Circuit Bending Concert by CMKT 4 – 05/16/2012

Mojave Makers is hosting our first workshop/class on Wednesday, May 16th from 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM. Join the members of the circuit bending band, CMKT4 to learn to solder, build you own Contact Microphone using the principles of piezoelectricty, and tune in some crazy “space sounds”. Following the workshop there will be a performance by the band.

[more] at Mojave Makers

MOJAVE, Calif. — The sign into town, slightly weathered, says “Gateway to Space!”

Beyond it lies the Mojave Air and Space Port, once a Marine auxiliary air station during [...]]]>

By Kenneth Chang, The New York Times, May 6, 2012, on page A1

MOJAVE, Calif. — The sign into town, slightly weathered, says “Gateway to Space!”

Beyond it lies the Mojave Air and Space Port, once a Marine auxiliary air station during World War II, now an incubator for the tinkerers and dreamers in the New Space movement. Adherents believe that the next phase of space exploration will be led by nimble, ambitious entrepreneurs — a new generation of people like Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, who helped create the electronics industry in a garage — and that this is their moment to come together and make it happen.

“It’s very similar to the Silicon Valley effect,” said Stuart O. Witt, the chief executive of the space port for the past decade, explaining how half a dozen outer space start-ups came to cluster at Mojave, a small desert town about 90 miles north of Los Angeles.

[More] Full story and photos at The New York Times

At 10 on Saturday morning, Scaled Composites flung open the gates to its facility at the Mojave Air and Space Port for the company’s first ever Career Day.

“It was really wild and a flood of people came [...]]]>

By Douglas Messier, Parabolic Arc Managing Editor

At 10 on Saturday morning, Scaled Composites flung open the gates to its facility at the Mojave Air and Space Port for the company’s first ever Career Day.

“It was really wild and a flood of people came around the corner,” recalled Elliot Seguin, a Scaled project engineer who was helping out with recruitment. “And we opened up the hangar doors and everyone ran to the tables.”

Scaled employees spent the next four hours of the hot spring day talking to prospective hires who wanted jobs at the company that is developing SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo for Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic space tourism venture and the Stratolaunch aircraft for Paul Allen. They all brought their resumes; some enterprising college students went further, hauling in parts of aircraft they had built to show off their skills, Seguin said.

[More] Full story and lots of photos at Parabolic Arc – Scaled Career Day in Mojave Deemed Great Success

By Douglas Messier, Parabolic Arc Managing Editor, April 27, 2012

A company led by the Virgin Group’s Director of Special Projects Alex Tai is the Mojave Air and Space Port’s newest tenant.

Last week, the East Kern Airport District Board of Directors authorized [...]]]>

Virgin Group’s Alex Tai to Set Up Shop in Mojave

By Douglas Messier, Parabolic Arc Managing Editor, April 27, 2012

A company led by the Virgin Group’s Director of Special Projects Alex Tai is the Mojave Air and Space Port’s newest tenant.

Last week, the East Kern Airport District Board of Directors authorized Mojave Air & Space Port CEO Stu Witt to finalize a lease for Tai’s company, Super Sonic Jet, Inc., of Nevada. Tai plans to house a small fleet of Eastern Bloc fighters in Building 70, a hangar adjacent to the airport’s Administration building.

Witt said that the company plans to store three MiG-21 and one Aero L-39 Albatros fighters in the hangar beginning on May 1. He said Tai and other pilots will be flying the aircraft out of Mojave for recreational purposes.

[more] Full story at Parabolic Arc -Virgin Group’s Alex Tai to Set Up Shop in Mojave

“California can have either all the regulation or all the business, but it can’t have both.”

That was the message delivered to a high-level [...]]]>

Mojave Air and Space Port Gets a Little Love From the State
By Douglas Messier, Parabolic Arc Managing Editor, April 27, 2012

“California can have either all the regulation or all the business, but it can’t have both.”

That was the message delivered to a high-level state official who visited the Mojave Air and Space Port last week to see what Sacramento can do to help keep the burgeoning commercial space industry from moving to other states with fewer regulations, lower taxes and financial incentives.

David Knudsen of the Governor Jerry Brown’s Office of Economic Development visited last Tuesday, meeting with airport officials and the heads of the some of the NewSpace companies operating at the desert spaceport located 100 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.

The warning about choosing between regulations and business was delivered by XCOR CEO Jeff Greason during a 20-minute meeting at the hangar where the company is building its suborbital Lynx space plane, Mojave Air and Space Port CEO Stuart Witt said. Knudsen also met with Masten Space Systems Founder Dave Masten and officials at the National Test Pilot School during his one-day visit.

[more] Full story at Parabolic Arc – Mojave Air and Space Port Gets a Little Love From the State

Stuart Witt talks about policies in California, industries they’ve lost, and how they can retain the companies doing innovative work today.

Interview With Stuart Witt, part 2 – Giving Permission