NewSpace Is Under Attack

William
Watson
 NewSpace is under attack; and, we urgently need your help to fight back!
Executive
 It’s been a couple of months since the Augustine Committee had the temerity to suggest that
Director
 maybe, just maybe, we should leave a few things that have long been the sole province of
16
First
Avenue
 government to the vital and growing private sector. The push back from the forces of the status
quo has been building ever since.
Nyack,
NY
10960

1.212.729.4363
 Even before the final report was issued, Congress called Norman Augustine to come up on the Hill
for a hearing to lecture him on his misguided ways. The notion that the private sector should be
“allowed” to carry humans into space was ridiculed as too risky—as if somehow government
employees are inherently better at their jobs than other people.

Three weeks ago, the launch, to a height commonly achieved by model rocket builders, of the
Ares I-X prototype, at a cost to taxpayers of over 400 million dollars, was hailed as proof that we
need only stay the course. Buzz Aldrin, was buying none of that nonsense, witting in the
Huffington Post that “the much-hyped Ares 1-X was much ado about nothing.”

Two weeks ago former astronaut and associate administrator, Scott “Doc” Horowitz, apparently
taking a page from Dan Brown’s DECEPTION POINT, seemed to find a hidden political
conspiracy by “a few people in the administration who want to kill Ares I and put all the money in
commercial”. It’s entirely a coincidence that Horowitz used to work for ATK, maker of the Ares
solid rocket motors.

Last week, when Time magazine declared Ares "The Best Invention of the Year," we seized the
offered hook to strike back and do a little truth-saying, congratulating NASA on its propaganda
triumph, adding to our earlier insistence that Ares needs a death panel.

Since 1988 the Space Frontier Foundation has steadfastly advocated for precisely what is
happening now. We continue to speak out for reason, confront resistance from self-serving
bureaucratic, political and “industry” forces and change the world one mind at a time.

To keep this up we need your financial support.

Please contribute today:

To donate by PayPal or credit card visit http://spacefrontier.org/help-sff OR send a check to:

Space Frontier Foundation
16 First Ave.
Nyack, NY 10960

To volunteer your time contact Will Watson at william.watson@spacefrontier.org

Open the Frontier

Bob Werb
Chairman
Chairm an of the Board

www.spacefrontier.org