Rocketeers TV

On Tuesday I'm heading to Rocket City USA, Huntsville, Alabama, with filmmaker Mark Greene to shoot video with rocketeer Tim Pickens. Tim plans to test fire a hybrid rocket engine and then we'll get a tour of his rocket shop and visit the historic test stands at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

The stuff at Marshall is closed to the public, so I'm looking forward to getting a look at (and filming) locations that rarely get attention. Tim tells me there's a Saturn 1-B booster lying on the ground next to the test stand, just where engineers left it after a test-fire forty-some years ago. Amazing.

Mark got so excited about my book Rocketeers early on that he wants to pitch it as a TV show to cable networks. To do that properly, we'll need to put together a pilot, which is where Tim comes in. Whether or not the full 13-episode series comes to be, we'll have some great footage to post here, on my site, and elsewhere.

I'll blog on location. Stay tuned.

More pics from Bigelow's Genesis II

That's Robert Bigelow's granddaughter's name on the outside of the ship. An out-of-this-world present to her, according to Leonard David.


In this interior shot, you can just make out some snapshots floating around in the background. Presumably this is a test of the Fly Your Stuff program, in which members of the public, including yours truly, submitted images and small objects to be flown on the ship.

Genesis II is a sub-scale test version of the full-up space station modules Bigelow Aerospace is building as part of the first commercial space station program. The ship joined Genesis I in orbit on June 28.

Signed copies of Rocketeers on my website

I've just put up a shopping cart at michaelbelfiore.com. You can order signed copies my forthcoming book Rocketeers there for no extra charge. I'll ship advance orders on publication day, July 31.

On The Space Show

Tune in tomorrow, July 2 to hear me talk about my forthcoming book Rocketeers on Dr. David Livingston's The Space Show at www.thespaceshow.com, 2-3:30 Pacific Time. If you're in the Seattle area, tune in to KKNW, 1150 AM.

Dr. Livingston is the radio show host for the NewSpace community, exceptionally well-informed and extremely thoughtful in his questions (as are his listeners). He's been reading a prepublication galley of my book, so we'll have a lot to talk about.

First images from Genesis II

This just in from Bigelow Aerospace. The second of the company's inflatable test modules went into orbit from Russia today and beamed back this pic, which confirms successful deployment of the craft's solar panels.

Not much to look at yet, but there's more sure to come. Stay tuned for a statement from Robert Bigelow, too.

Bigelow's making rapid progress toward sending up the first commercial space station. Can't wait to see NASA's reaction to the ship that will instantly render the International Space Station obsolete at a fraction of the cost.

NewSpace 2007 developments

Just heard from the organizers of the NewSpace 2007 conference that I'm to chair a panel discussion on commercial access to orbit. The panel has a great line-up, with more to come: http://www.space-frontier.org/Events/NewSpace2007/. Scroll down for the listing for Saturday, July 21. We go on at 9:45 a.m. This will mark my public speaking debut on the topic of my forthcoming book Rocketeers.

I've also been promised an exhibit table, which will be a great place for me bring the discussion from the panel when we run out of time there. I'll bring some advance copies of the book for folks to check out. I might be able to preview a new project I'm working on too. More on that soon....

California wildfire seen from Genesis

This just in from Bigelow Aerospace: the company's Genesis I satellite shot this view of Los Angeles and the Channel Islands last Friday, when wildfires threatened resort communities on Catalina Island.

You can see the smoke plume emanating from the island at the lower right of the photo. Click to see a bigger view.

Bigelow Aerospace is currently the only NewSpace company in orbit, with another launch planned for later this month. Genesis I and Genesis II are trial balloons--really--for the first commercial space stations. Both the test satellites and the full-scale stations are designed to be inflated from a compressed state when they reach orbit, thus saving space on launch and allowing for larger stations than is possible with conventional rigid designs.