Georgia Space Update
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GEORGIA SPACE UPDATE NDIA-GEORGIA CHAPTER SPACE COMMITTEE STRENGTH THROUGH INDUSTRY AND TECHNOLOGY JANUARY 2016 Spaceport Camden Continues Forward About Camden County: Located in the extreme southeast corner of Georgia, Camden County truly is “Georgia’s Coastal Community FAA Spaceport Camden Public Meeting Held of Choice.” Originally formed in 1777, Camden County is best known for its rich history, natural scenic beauty and Southern CAMDEN COUNTY, Fla. — The public was invited to attend the hospitality. Our vision is helping to make this the best place to live Federal Aviation Administration's public scoping meeting for by preserving and enhancing the history and quality of life, while the creation of a spaceport in Camden County near Woodbine, promoting smart growth and providing an efficient, effective and officials said. responsive government. The meeting was held Monday, December 7 between 5 p.m. and About Spaceport Camden: Our Vision is to develop a successful 9 p.m. with over 400 in attendance in Kingsland, GA. The event world class spaceport through a public-private partnership that was planned to end at 8:00, but there were so many people establishes Camden County as the Commercial Space Center of the attending who wanted to speak that it was extended an United States. Our Mission is to create the premier spaceport additional hour. strategically positioned to provide economic diversity with a competitive advantage for the space sector, Camden County, the There was an open house workshop period for the first hour State of Georgia and the United States of America. For more where residents could submit written comments. information please view our website at: www.spaceportcamden.us After a 15 minute explanation of the environmental process, the question and answer period began and continued to the end of the meeting at 9 p.m. The proposed launch site for the spaceport is in unincorporated land near Woodbine in Camden County. At this time, the FAA is preparing an Environmental Impact Statement for the Camden County Board of Commissioners' proposal to build and run a spaceport in Camden County. Of those who spoke the number in favor of the spaceport were approximately 10-1 over those not in favor. Those not in favor were virtually all concerned about environmental issues. Many of those concerns were not so much against the spaceport as they were with desiring it was done without damage to the environment. SPACE DOMINATES NDIA AWARDS Each year NDIA-GA holds an awards dinner. At the dinner the chapter presents awards honoring individuals and companies from around the state that have shown a level of excellence in the area of defense and particularly in areas of the defense industry that are very important to the State of Georgia. This year space dominated those awards. See below for information on the Space Award and the Small Business of the Year Award. The dinner will be held on February 8 at the Georgia Tech Research Center. The guest speaker will be Congressman Austin Scott from the US House Armed Services Committee. Information about the dinner, a full list of awardees and registration information can be found on our web site: www.ndia-ga.org NDIA-GA Space Committee Sponsors the NDIA-GA GENERAL JAMES Chapter’s November Quarterly Breakfast OGLETHORPE SPACE AWARD On November 18 the NDIA-GA Space Committee sponsored the The NDIA-GA space award is named in honor of General James quarterly breakfast at the beautiful Georgian Club, 100 Galleria Oglethorpe, the founder of Georgia, who was a forward-thinking Parkway in Atlanta. The November breakfast had a slightly visionary leader. This award recognizes the significant different format that in the past. Rather than have a single contributions made during the previous year by the recipient who speaker, the program had a panel discussion that looked at space recognizes the opportunity space provides to Georgia and who has as it pertains to Georgia. : made significant contributions to the space program within the state. Bob Scaringe, President of AVG Communications – Bob discussed the space economy which is a world-wide $330B The awardee this year is Steve L. Howard, County Administrator market. Georgia has a small part of that, but with the move of Camden County, and project manager of Spaceport Camden. toward Spaceport Camden, is ready to become a space hub. He took over the project of developing a spaceport in Camden Steve Howard, County Manager in Camden County-Steve County when the project was floundering. He recognized what discussed the development of Spaceport Camden with particular this project provided for both the State of Georgia and Camden attention to the scoping meeting which would be held in a few County and wanted to be sure the county did not miss out on this days. unique opportunity. He has expertly guided the project by first obtaining an agreement to purchase the property and now Dr. John Olds, CEO of Spaceworks Enterprises discussed his working with the Federal Aviation Administration to accomplish business, what they are doing and where they are heading. the Environmental Impact Study that must be done before a Companies like Spaceworks stand to gain immeasurably from license to operate the spaceport can issued by the FAA. this new emphasis on space in the state. Numerous space company executives have said this property is the Representative Jason Spencer, POC in the Georgia finest in the country for a commercial spaceport. It provides Legislature for Space discussed the mood of the legislature and Camden County and Georgia with an economic opportunity that the upcoming legislation that will be necessary for space to may be the most significant in its history. Without Steve’s vision flourish in the state…particularly liability legislation. and leadership this opportunity would have been lost. His vision and leadership exemplify every qualification for this award. Please see our web site for a complete film of the entire panel presentation. http://www.ndia-ga.org/ NDIA-Georgia Chapter is proud to award its 2015 James Oglethorpe Award to Steve Howard. SMALL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR UPCOMING EVENTS Dr. John Olds is the founder of SpaceWorks Enterprises, Inc. and currently serves as the corporation's Chief Executive Officer. March 7-10 Satellite 2016 – Washington, DC SpaceWorks Enterprises is an Atlanta-based group of innovative March 8-10 space businesses focused on commercial markets, space systems Goddard Memorial Symposium – Greenbelt, MD analysis, and low-cost space hardware. Its subsidiary companies include Generation Orbit, Terminal Velocity and Blink Astro. April 11-14 st 31 National Space Symposium-Colorado Springs Their customers include NASA, the U.S. Air Force, DARPA, May 15-18 traditional aerospace primes and emerging space entrepreneurs GEOINT 2016-Orlando, FL and their companies. Since their founding in 2000, SEI has May 17-19 served a variety of customers on space projects and contracts Humans to Mars Summit-Washington, DC ranging from large to small, and from long to short duration. May 18-22 No small business in Georgia has had the national and world International Space Development Conf, San Juan, PR impact on a sector of the economy in so many futuristic and May 24-26 visionary areas as Spaceworks, and the National Industrial Space Tech Expo-Pasadena, CA Association-Georgia Chapter is pleased to have selected them as our Small Business of the Year. Chuck Hunsaker – President, NDIA-Georgia Chapter – 706-464-1142 – [email protected] Bob Scaringe – NDIA-Georgia Chapter Space Committee Chairman - AVG Communications - 770-594-3369 - [email protected] Georgia and the Space Economy needed, develop all training materials, and provide the training at no cost to the company. Several years ago a study commissioned by the Georgia Military Also, bringing space jobs to Georgia will only drive more aspiring Affairs Committee recommended the state reach out to students into STEM educational opportunities and further companies in the space economy. They did so based on our encourage local junior high and high school students into the location between Alabama and Florida, with the Marshall Space sciences. Center and the Kennedy Space Center, our country’s primary launch facility. Combined with Georgia’s strong business Georgia has over 500 companies across both air and space facets climate and Georgia Tech, which produces the most aerospace of the industry, and those companies employ 88,000 aerospace engineers in the country, the opportunity to attract space workers. companies was natural. The property around the proposed spaceport has one million This recommendation was made before there was any real workers within an hour’s drive, but is remarkably free of thought of a launch facility in Georgia. With the project to create population in the immediate flight safety zone that enables the a commercial launch facility in Camden County, our ability to operations to occur safely for the uninvolved public. attract companies involved in the space economy increases exponentially. Georgia has one of the nation’s best developed logistics systems with trucking companies, rail, two seaports, interstate highways Only about 1% of the space economy involves launch and the world’s busiest airport. Moving people or product to or manufacturing. The remaining 99% involves all sorts of satellite from any location in the world can easily be accomplished. Space and ground equipment manufacturing, satellite services, remote is the next mode we need to conquer! sensing, distribution, research and development and distribution. A recent study indicated the average space job in The southeast section of Georgia has ample properties that are the country pays $92,000, so the highly educated, high-tech and ready for development and many with available buildings of highly paid jobs are exactly what Georgia hopes to attract.