Commercial Space Conference Underway Despite Blizzard

I think Bolden was supposed to be at MSFC this morning, but I also think it was canceled or rescheduled. I suppose he couldn't get out of Washington ... but wasn't he in Houston yesterday?

What we need to do is to tell Greenland to to return control of the Gulf Stream to the U.S. immediately or else! Then we can send this weather back to them where it belongs... :)

Bolden did speak at MSFC yesterday.

I haven't been able to tweet much these past couple of days, but I just wanted to provide some comments on the conference from the peanut gallery...

The people at this conference, at the very least, have all made personal sacrifices to be here. They have also demonstrated great levels of personal motivation to attend and participate. We have a 16-year-old student who is sitting in on all the sessions, taking notes, just because, for whatever reason, she loves commercial space.

It's hard not to be impressed at the turnout when you look out at a room of 100 people sitting comfortably, but you can also see the traffic-stopping, blizzard conditions through the floor-to-ceiling windows outside the conference room doors in the background.

We are getting through the conference with very a high degree of panelist participation via telecon (or "polycon" equipment, as the hotel calls it). I really appreciate the willingness of the likes of Joe Rouge, Alan Stern, Randy Babbitt, and all the other folks who have dialed in and talked through their charts.

People are also demonstrating a high-degree of flexibility, as well, as everybody is rolling with the situation as it unfolds, real-time.

Finally, the AIAA has been a superlative partner by really taking the logistical load and carrying it effortlessly to this point. I have no doubt in my mind that we'll complete today's events with very little visible stir (keyword, "visible", and that's the way it should be).

It's been a great two days so far (including the FAA COE for CST and and NASA IPP meetings on Tuesday) and I am just hopeful that all the participants will be able to get on the flights they currently have planned so they can get home, relatively on schedule, so they can sleep in their own beds, and wake up refreshed and reenergized on Monday, to continue making commercial space a reality sooner rather than later.

Ken Davidian