Feral Jundi

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Cool Stuff: The Ultimate Public-Private Partnership–Contractors In Space!

This is just cool. Here is a NASA astronaut describing the public-private partnership between SpaceX and NASA with this upcoming logistics mission. Dragon is the name of the supply capsule, mounted on a Falcon 9 rocket, that will be sent to the International Space Station to resupply it. Dragon would be the first commercial spacecraft to perform this mission at the ISS.

Not only that, but government needs SpaceX to get this right.  We are talking about delivering the essentials of life–food, etc. and there are people in space who are depending on these deliveries. So all eyes will be on this company and their team of quality control folks, engineers, and everyone in between on getting this thing off the ground and delivering like a champ. (which this will be a really interesting case study for how private industry will do this versus how NASA used to do this–differences, similarities, cost savings, etc.)

What I really enjoyed though was the comparison of today’s public-private partnership, to yesteryear’s use of private industry to support the expansion out west.  I have discussed this partnership when it came to scouts and the Army, and Don Pettit’s example of contractors supplying forts is another one.

Not only that, but today’s contractors in the war have been immensely important to the task of supplying military outposts and supporting logistics missions all over. So yes, when I see a government Astronaut talking about contractors and commercial spaceflight, while he is in space, I rate that as pretty awesome. Check it out. –Matt

 

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Industry Talk: Company Spotlight–Space Gateway Support and KSC SWAT

     How would you like to be the guy protecting the Space Shuttle and NASA’s employees and facilities? Talk about a big responsibility? lol

     I tell yah, contractors just don’t get any respect these days, yet we are used to protect this country’s space program.  Not to mention all the nuclear facilities that contractors are tasked with protecting….

     Or for that matter, how about all of the protection specialists out there that protect Fortune 500 CEO’s, politicians, dignitaries, and celebrities here in the US or in war zones and third world countries?  It really is impressive when you think about how much security stuff is contracted out.  Security contractors and the companies they work for are doing incredible things out there, and Space Gateway Support along with KSC SWAT is one of them.  Check it out. –Matt

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Space Gateway Support

PROTECTIVE SERVICES

Protective Services encompasses Security, Fire, Emergency Response, and Command and Control. We protect Spaceport assets while our firefighters, emergency services and communication personnel stand trained and ready to respond.

We provide all police functions; SWAT coverage for elevated security and protection of astronaut crews and space hardware; K-9 narcotics and bomb detection; resource protection; and investigations and industrial security. We operate the only NASA federal law enforcement academy in the United States.

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