Ian Murphy reporting from the ISDC registration room…

Registration is in full swing, the bags look great (still can’t add photos sorry) the volunteers shirt look great but either their too big or humans have begin shrinking at an unusual pace.  Registration is open until 8pm if your coming in tonight and from 7am to 7pm if your coming in tomorrow. 

A glance at tomorrow’s agenda – 

9am – Dr. George Nield – FAA AST Associate Admin

10am – Jeff Greason, XCOR President (just saw him a few minutes ago and seems to be in very good spirits despite a red eye flight)

11am – Will Whitehorn, Virgin Galactic President

12pm (lunch) – Elon Musk, SpaceX Founder

2pm – COTS Panel – Alan Lindenmoyer, NASA + Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX + Robert T. Richards, Orbital

3pm  – GLXP Panel – Will “Master P” Pomerantz + Bob Richards, Odyssey Moon (amongst countless other cool things) + others

5pm – Commercial Space Panel – Ken Davidian, FAA AST + others

4pm (in Augusta room) – Tim Pickens “So you want to start a space company” (no way I am missing this one.

This is just a small taste of all the great stuff at ISDC.  After the tracks during the day are over we are really hoping for good weather because after Richard Garriott (sixth private citizen to travel to the ISS, creator of the Ultima series and the greatest party thrower on the planet – http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/magazine/15-06/ps_lordbritish – ) speaks tomorrow night at 7pm ISDC will have a new first.  FIREWORKS.  Yep, the schedule says Fireworks Show and I put Brett Silcox in a headlock until he swore it wasn’t an elaborate prank (the schedule also says “desert reception” and being that we are in Florida, where I am pretty sure there are no deserts, you can see why I was skeptical). 

Note – just got an email that says photos may not be possible.  I will find another place to post them and get a link out. 

Update from Jason Rhian in the afternoon SIS 6 sessions…

The afternoon panel was moderated by Daniel Gruenbaum of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex and consisted of Jane Reifert the president of Incredible Adventures, Bernie McShea vice-president of business development for Space Florida, John Cassanto CEO of Instrumentation Technology Association and Robert Ward, president of Strategic Insights & Creative Imagination.  While the topic governed how the hospitality industry and space tourism industry should and will work hand in hand, the discussion topics also drifted to how better market the space story.

“Those inspirational moments are the things required to create aspirational goals,” Ward said.  “We need to tell the story in a less technical and more emotional way.”

Another interesting quote from Jane Reifert of Incredible Adventures: ” The easier it is to do, the easier it is to sell.” 

The last panel of the day was comprised of the following: Emerging Business Technology Practice Group Chair, Brent Britton, Vice-President of 4Frontiers Corporation and NewSpace LLC Joseph Palaia, Global Entrepreneur, Per Wimmer and SGS Deputy Chief of Operations and Northrop Grumman Chairman Roy Tharpe.  The panelists decided that the mold for how panels would be held – needed to be broken.  Britton’s introductions were laden with pop-culture references, Palaia openly disagreed with comments made by earlier panelists and Wimmer jumped off the stage to give his presentation.

“Show me a kid that doesn’t get excited about a robot,” Palaia said.  “Especially when I put the controls of that robot in their hands!”

Thanks to Jason for his work today

I got a chance to sit in on this panel too and wanted to chime in on something I overheard…

John Cassanto, CEO of Instrumentation Technology Associates had a great presentation on Secondary markets associated with space tourism.  A couple of great points that I will paraphrase

1) commercial research racks and scientific experiments are not new – there is a solid foundation of previous success

2) There is a high value secondary market for space tourism companies, especially in area like biomedical research and experiments

3) Passengers will WANT to carry their own experiments and fly other’s experiment’s if not for the good of science than maybe to supplement the cost of their own flight.  These “experimentourists” should be encouraged. (the word “experimentourist” is trademarked and cannot be used with out the express written permission of Ricky Bobby Inc…or Ian Murphy).

4) Every passenger compartment can have areas for micro gravity and zero gravity racks for experiments and payloads.

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That’s all for now.  I get to go pick up Will Whitehorn from the airport at 5pm.  Wish me luck on convincing him to either rig the Space Ambassador Program so I win or just giving me a free ride in exchange for giving him a lift 😉