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Space Frontier Foundation Gathering Focuses on Commercialization, Exploration
By Glen Golightly
Houston Bureau Chief
posted: 01:04 pm ET
21 September 1999
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sff_advance_990921LOS ANGELES The theme for this years Space Frontier Foundation annual conference, which begins Thursday in Los Angeles, is "Launching the Millennium." The topic is drawing a wide variety of participants, from space enthusiasts to those trying to make a buck. Many of the meetings at the conference will focus on commercializing space a hot topic, especially for NASA, which is under Congressional pressure to find private partners to share the financial burden of space exploration. Seminars on the topic include "Cheap Access to Space," "Doing Business on Space Stations" and "Citizen Explorers and Space Tourism." NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin is scheduled to speak Friday and discuss commercial issues and ideas. Other business speakers include representatives from upstart space companies such as Kistler Aerospace Corp. and Rotary Rocket Co. But commercialization is far from the only topic to be covered at the conference. Other events range from an art show, to a kids in space program, to a reception honoring the astronauts of Apollo 12 and particularly Cmdr. Charles "Pete" Conrad, who died recently. Novelist Ray Bradbury and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), Chairman of the House of Representatives Space Subcommittee, are also slated to speak. SFF was founded in 1988 with the premise of opening space for human settlement. In 1994 and 1995 it promoted its "AlphaTown" initiative of using the International Space Station as a springboard to colonizing space.
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