Commercial Spaceflight Federation "Major Announcement" on Wednesday, April 13

[Silmfeanor]

Everybody is going to come together as a joint entity to develop and launch a Sea Dragon, duh!

If only.....

I would be surprised if the new general was the announcement. Could be, though, but I would dearly like a plan, architecture, or something along those lines.

[neilh]

Everybody is going to come together as a joint entity to develop and launch a Sea Dragon, duh!

Win! Since Bigelow's involved, it'll be a giant inflatable Sea Dragon.

[cro-magnon gramps]

Seeing as we are all speculating WILDLY,

they are going to announce that they are joining the Russian Federation in building a Cis-Lunar Infrastructure and Moon Base Alpha in 2019;   20 years late, better late than never ;-)

[mr. mark]

"Thanks for your interest in this.  A couple of additional notes:

Also participating in the press availability will be:
- Gwynne Shotwell, President of SpaceX
- A TBD senior executive of the United Launch Alliance
- Patti Grace Smith, former Associate Administrator of FAA/AST

The announcement is one of importance to the space industry as a whole, not just to one particular company or combination of companies".

John Gedmark
Executive Director
Commercial Spaceflight Federation

So it's not just Virgin/Bigelow which seems to point to something bigger since ULA and Spacex representatives are both going to be there as well.
"The announcement is one of importance to the space industry as a whole, not just to one particular company or combination of companies".
that statement is keeping me guessing.

[Namechange User]

Everybody is going to come together as a joint entity to develop and launch a Sea Dragon, duh!

If only.....

I would be surprised if the new general was the announcement. Could be, though, but I would dearly like a plan, architecture, or something along those lines.

You will never get that from commercial.  They all have different "plans", or at least that is how it is supposed to work.  There is no "architecture", nor should there be, that they all rally behind.  They are in competition with each other.

This is not NASA, nor is it supposed to be. 

This is supposed to be about "commercial markets" that NASA should not be wholey subsidizing, but can take advantage of, and the business case is independent and in parallel to NASA.

[Namechange User]

"Thanks for your interest in this.  A couple of additional notes:

Also participating in the press availability will be:
- Gwynne Shotwell, President of SpaceX
- A TBD senior executive of the United Launch Alliance
- Patti Grace Smith, former Associate Administrator of FAA/AST

The announcement is one of importance to the space industry as a whole, not just to one particular company or combination of companies".

John Gedmark
Executive Director
Commercial Spaceflight Federation

So it's not just Virgin/Bigelow which seems to point to something bigger since ULA and Spacex representatives are both going to be there as well.
"The announcement is one of importance to the space industry as a whole, not just to one particular company or combination of companies".
that statement is keeping me guessing.

So why do you keep pressing SpaceX and/or FH?

[mr. mark]

Why would Spacex or any other company not affiliated show up if it was only about a Virgin Galactic/SNC - ULA space tourism arrangement this is clearly more or something else than just that if it affects the industry as a whole.

[Diagoras]

Everybody is going to come together as a joint entity to develop and launch a Sea Dragon, duh!

If only.....

I would be surprised if the new general was the announcement. Could be, though, but I would dearly like a plan, architecture, or something along those lines.

You will never get that from commercial.  They all have different "plans", or at least that is how it is supposed to work.  There is no "architecture", nor should there be, that they all rally behind.  They are in competition with each other.

This is not NASA, nor is it supposed to be. 

This is supposed to be about "commercial markets" that NASA should not be wholey subsidizing, but can take advantage of, and the business case is independent and in parallel to NASA.

Actually, private entities collaborate to engage in large-scale activities without a central, coercive force directing them all the time. Even while remaining in competition.

[Silmfeanor]

Everybody is going to come together as a joint entity to develop and launch a Sea Dragon, duh!

If only.....

I would be surprised if the new general was the announcement. Could be, though, but I would dearly like a plan, architecture, or something along those lines.

You will never get that from commercial.  They all have different "plans", or at least that is how it is supposed to work.  There is no "architecture", nor should there be, that they all rally behind.  They are in competition with each other.

This is not NASA, nor is it supposed to be. 

This is supposed to be about "commercial markets" that NASA should not be wholey subsidizing, but can take advantage of, and the business case is independent and in parallel to NASA.

with architecture, I meant something along the lines of interoperability, a drawn up set of codes of conduct if one the vessels has a problem, crosstraining or combined training for crew, some other standards etc.

Might be unrealistic, I give you that, but hey, as I said, I can hope 

[Norm Hartnett]

Checking the National Space Symposium site indicates no streaming video either;
http://www.nationalspacesymposium.org/

and neither this announcement nor the presser are listed on their schedule of events. Something might pop up on their twitter or facebook feeds.

[Namechange User]

Everybody is going to come together as a joint entity to develop and launch a Sea Dragon, duh!

If only.....

I would be surprised if the new general was the announcement. Could be, though, but I would dearly like a plan, architecture, or something along those lines.

You will never get that from commercial.  They all have different "plans", or at least that is how it is supposed to work.  There is no "architecture", nor should there be, that they all rally behind.  They are in competition with each other.

This is not NASA, nor is it supposed to be. 

This is supposed to be about "commercial markets" that NASA should not be wholey subsidizing, but can take advantage of, and the business case is independent and in parallel to NASA.

Actually, private entities collaborate to engage in large-scale activities without a central, coercive force directing them all the time. Even while remaining in competition.

If you are talking about alliances/partnerships advance a common goal/lobbying efforts, which is essentially what the CSF is, you would be correct. 

However, that is not what I personally believed the poster was suggesting above.  In fact, right now these companies are looking to capture, at least a piece, of the market (whatever that really is) in order to make a profit for their respective company, so it seems pre-mature to be discussing consolidation before the industry has even started if that is what you are trying to imply. 

Now there is something to partial-alliances to reduce or share overhead costs but that is another matter entirely. 

[Namechange User]

Checking the National Space Symposium site indicates no streaming video either;
http://www.nationalspacesymposium.org/

and neither this announcement nor the presser are listed on their schedule of events. Something might pop up on their twitter or facebook feeds.

Odd that it would be called "major" then and a time given, etc. 

[majormajor42]

Agreement with NASA to outsource all commercial space crew/tourist training to JSC 

[Diagoras]

Everybody is going to come together as a joint entity to develop and launch a Sea Dragon, duh!

If only.....

I would be surprised if the new general was the announcement. Could be, though, but I would dearly like a plan, architecture, or something along those lines.

You will never get that from commercial.  They all have different "plans", or at least that is how it is supposed to work.  There is no "architecture", nor should there be, that they all rally behind.  They are in competition with each other.

This is not NASA, nor is it supposed to be. 

This is supposed to be about "commercial markets" that NASA should not be wholey subsidizing, but can take advantage of, and the business case is independent and in parallel to NASA.

Actually, private entities collaborate to engage in large-scale activities without a central, coercive force directing them all the time. Even while remaining in competition.

If you are talking about alliances/partnerships advance a common goal/lobbying efforts, which is essentially what the CSF is, you would be correct. 

However, that is not what I personally believed the poster was suggesting above.  In fact, right now these companies are looking to capture, at least a piece, of the market (whatever that really is) in order to make a profit for their respective company, so it seems pre-mature to be discussing consolidation before the industry has even started if that is what you are trying to imply. 

Now there is something to partial-alliances to reduce or share overhead costs but that is another matter entirely. 

It appears he was talking about interoperability, yeah. But "architecture" as used by NASA usually refers to the plan and components used to reach a destination, right?

I could see the CSF announcing something along those lines to privately recreate Apollo 8 or something. Almost certainly with government funding of some kind, though it would make quite a marketing tool.

Still, it would be extremely surprising - but then I didn't really see Falcon Heavy coming either.

[Malderi]

Announcement should be about now - anywhere we can get the news?

[ugordan]

http://www.spacenews.com/venture_space/110413-steidle-tapped-run-commercial-spaceflight-federation.html

Retired U.S. Navy Adm. Craig Steidle is taking the helm of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF), becoming the 5-year-old organization’s first full-time president, effective May 15. An announcement is planned for April 13 at the National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo.

[rdale]

Agreement with NASA to outsource all commercial space crew/tourist training to JSC 

I'm not sure I understand... What sort of training will JSC be doing exactly? Do you have a link?

[neilh]

http://www.spacenews.com/venture_space/110413-steidle-tapped-run-commercial-spaceflight-federation.html

Retired U.S. Navy Adm. Craig Steidle is taking the helm of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF), becoming the 5-year-old organization’s first full-time president, effective May 15. An announcement is planned for April 13 at the National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Yup, it seems likely that the Q&A with the various companies will have to do more with welcoming Steidle, maybe some words on future direction of CSF, etc. Or maybe not?

[Norm Hartnett]

Agreement with NASA to outsource all commercial space crew/tourist training to JSC 

I'm not sure I understand... What sort of training will JSC be doing exactly? Do you have a link?

Do you have a hard time finding pants with one leg being so much longer than the other?

[stockman]

http://www.spacenews.com/venture_space/110413-steidle-tapped-run-commercial-spaceflight-federation.html

Retired U.S. Navy Adm. Craig Steidle is taking the helm of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF), becoming the 5-year-old organization’s first full-time president, effective May 15. An announcement is planned for April 13 at the National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Yup, it seems likely that the Q&A with the various companies will have to do more with welcoming Steidle, maybe some words on future direction of CSF, etc. Or maybe not?

if thats the case, then this was anti-climactic