Since the early sixties, men have been flying successful suborbital missions. In the three years since the first International Symposium for Personal Spaceflight in 2005, a number of viable vehicle systems and mission profiles for suborbital human and material transportation have emerged. Hopefully, the first suborbital space tourism flights will occur before the decade ends.
The panelists in this session represent the technical, business, regulatory, and customer sides of the suborbital space enterprise, and they are qualified to discuss the current state and future of sub-orbital access to space; who is prepared now to fly, what the business cases are, and how the regulatory agencies are positioned to help expand the capacity for companies to succeed as they build this industry.
The panelists include
- Session Moderator, Bob Dickman, Executive Director, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)
- Session Chair, Tom Burton, Department Head, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, New Mexico State University
- Jeff Greason – President, XCOR - invited
- Kevin Bowcutt – Chief Scientist, Boeing Phantom Works
- George Nield – Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation, FAA
- Virgin Galactic
- EADS Astrium
- Michael Blum – Founder & Managing Director of Repulse Bay Capital Ltd. & Co-President & CCO of Research Edge