Space Frontier Foundation

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Space Frontier Foundation (SFF) is a small but influential organization that promotes increased participation of the private sector in space research and development.

The organization

The SFF was founded in 1988 by space activists who believed it was technically possible to realize their shared dreams of large-scale colonization of the solar system. However, they knew that as long as space exploration was in the hands of the US government-administered space program, this would not be possible.

In recent years the Space Frontier Foundation has been a supporter of various privately-funded efforts to enter the space sector, such as: B. the Ansari X-Prize , the SpaceShipOne project and Bigelow Aerospace , founded by entrepreneur Robert Bigelow, which aims to establish a private space station in space.

The organization has often been critical of the US government's space program, particularly the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA . The SFF has z. B. criticizes the space shuttle launched by NASA and claims that the private space sector is better suited to take over the work of the shuttle. Nevertheless, the SFF has supported some current NASA projects such as the Centennial Challenges competition , which is primarily intended to stimulate innovation in the private sector.

Additional projects by the organization include "The Watch," an asteroid and comet detection and research project, and "Permission to Dream," a project that connects students around the world through the wonders of space and astronomy.

Possibly the most famous face of the Space Frontier Foundation is co-founder Rick Tumlinson , who has been asked six times by the US Congress since 1995 to testify on space-related issues. Tumlinson was recently featured in Space News magazine's list of 100 Most Influential People in the Space Industry .

literature

The SFF was recently brought to the fore by the novel Meteor, written by Dan Brown , in which the organization supports a senator with illegal campaign donations who promises to privatize the state space agency NASA in order to open up space for private companies if his election campaign is successful as US president .

Web links