Space Florida Considers $100,000 Bonus
Pay Plan (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Space Florida, the state's space business authority, is considering a
performance bonus plan that could provide a reward of more than
$100,000 for its president and smaller perks for other top staff. Space
Florida's board on Monday will consider recommendations that would
create incentive pay bonuses worth 50 percent of salary for the top
official, and from 5 percent to 40 percent for lower executives.
"For me it comes down to: Do we have the talent we need to be able to
do our job, as mandated by the statute, and compete in the aerospace
industry, and be able to deal with the complex financing and tools we
have at our disposal?" said Board Chairman Bill Dymond of Orlando. The
bonus plan was developed by Harrington & Associates of Melbourne,
which had helped establish the authority's salary schedule.
Space Florida President Frank DiBello receives a salary of $267,952.
That means he could be eligible for a lump-sum bonus of up to $133,976.
Space Florida's salary scale allows the president's salary to top out
at $359,056. The authority's 36-person staff includes 10 other
executives who draw salaries between $100,000 and $200,000. (8/16)
Join the SPACErePORT LinkedIn Group
(Source: SPACErePORT)
The SPACErePORT LinkedIn group includes about 100 members who share an
interest in how the states are supporting the development of new space
transportation capabilities. Click here. (8/16)
Trump: 'Wonderful' Manned Mars Mission
Comes After Infrastructure (Source: Forbes)
Presidential candidate Donald Trump has managed to garner all that
attention while offering remarkably few substantive policy proposals
beyond building a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. But now we know where
he stands on NASA plans to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s – well,
kind of. “Honestly, I think it’s wonderful; I want to rebuild our
infrastructure first, ok? I think it’s wonderful.”
That was the entirety of Trump’s response to a question from Conor
Cullinane, a NASA Space Technology Research Fellow at Harvard Medical
School & MIT who was in the audience for Trump’s rally in Hampton,
New Hampshire on Friday. Trump interrupted the young questioner several
times before he could ultimately ask the GOP frontrunner what he
thought about putting humans on Mars. (8/15)
Samsung Looks to Join the Satellite
Internet Space Race (Source: WIRED)
Samsung is the latest company eyeing satellites as the best way to
expand the reach of the internet to the billions of people without
access. In a paper published this week, Farooq Khan, head of Samsung
Research America, outlines an idea for using thousands of small low
earth orbit (LEO) satellites to provide high-speed internet all over
the planet.
Traditional satellite internet providers use geostationary satellites
positioned much further from the earth’s surface to provide access. The
problem is that these services tend to be slow, expensive and have high
latency. By using a large number of smaller and cheaper satellites
floating closer to the planet, Khan and company hope to speed
connections up significantly while also cutting costs.
So far it’s just a research paper, but Samsung is far from alone in
exploring this idea. A company called OneWeb has received funding from
, as well as backing from Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson.
Entrepreneur Elon Musk’s Space X is working on a similar scheme as
well, complete with backing from Google. (8/15)
The Space Race Led by Britain:
Nano-Sats, Cubesats - and New Funds (Source: This Is Money)
Britain's satellite firms are counting down to a launch that they
expect will mark a key milestone in the industry’s astonishing
expansion. But this time there will be no rocket on the launchpad. And
instead of scientists, it will be private investors watching nervously
as a dedicated private equity fund aimed at backing start-up space
firms boosts the industry into the centre of the business world.
The fund will be launched by Seraphim Capital in October and is being
backed by investors including Airbus, which already has a presence in
the space industry through its ownership of Surrey Satellite
Technology, one of the world’s leading small satellite makers. It will
be followed by two more funds later in the year. The UK Space Agency
believes that British space firms have previously missed out on
creating world leading companies because of a risk averse attitude
towards the industry in this country. Click here.
(8/15)
Space Companies Await the Launch of
Spaceport Colorado (Source: Denver Business Journal)
The idea of a federally licensed port where trips into space would
start just east of Denver captured a lot of people’s imagination when
it was splashily revealed in late 2011. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper
highlighted it at an aerospace industry gathering, and Tom Clark, head
of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp., spoke of people one day
skiing Colorado powder in the morning and catching a sub-orbital
spacecraft to be on a coast for surfing that afternoon.
But the companies that signed agreements saying they’d come to
Spaceport Colorado are still working on their ideas. “We do still have
Spaceport Colorado in our plans,” said Eric Witcher, of Rocket
Crafters. The company is based near the proposed spaceport at the Neil
Armstrong International Air & Space Center in Titusville, Florida,
next to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Rocket Crafters, then based in
Utah, was the first company to publicly announce it wanted to operate
of Spaceport Colorado.
The idea for Spaceport Colorado continues to resonate in Colorado’s
space industry. Make a spaceport and you get in the ground floor by
making the future real, the argument goes. Putting a hub for the
nascent space tourism within such easy reach of a busy international
airport made sense. Click here.
(8/14)
Antares Launches to Resume at Virginia
Spaceport in 2016 (Source: DelMarVa Now)
Orbital ATK is on track to make the next Antares launch from Wallops in
early 2016, President Dave Thompson said. The company is preparing for
multiple cargo supply missions to the International Space Station in
2016 under its Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA. (8/14)
JAXA and Mitsubishi Move Next HTV
Resupply Mission to Wednesday (Source: JAXA)
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
(JAXA) decided to postpone the launch of the H-IIB Launch Vehicle No. 5
with the H-II Transfer Vehicle “KOUNOTORI5” (HTV5) onboard from the
Tanegashima Space Center, which was scheduled for August 17 as
unfavorable weather is forecasted. The new launch date is set for
August 19. (8/16)
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