posted 04-13-2012 11:10 AM               

Join us and Museum of Flight benefactor Charles Simonyi, Ph.D. to discover what the next great advancement of humanity will be.

A new company will be unveiling its mission to revolutionize current space exploration activities and ultimately create a better standard of living on Earth. Don't miss your opportunity to be among the first to find out what's next from the world's leading commercial space pioneers and the people who will chart the future.

posted 04-24-2012 07:00 PM               

The event itself is best covered on this site here.

In the Q/A session with the press, they answered three internet questions and one was from Robert here on cS. The funny part is everyone on the panel recognized the name and one even said, "Oh yeah, we know him well!"

The signing with Tom Jones afterward went very well. I'd heard he was a nice guy and he sure lived up to that. He signed my hardbound copy of "Sky Walking and a couple of 8X10s I had (one of him doing his STS-98 EVA and the other of him in his official portrait in the EVA suit).

Here's a couple of shots, I couldn't get very much because of the media wall and the distance my table was from the stage. Robert, feel free to use them anyway you want if you'd like...

posted 04-24-2012 07:14 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by p51:
The funny part is everyone on the panel recognized the name and one even said, "Oh yeah, we know him well!"

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They referenced a common connection to SEDS — Students for the Exploration and Development of Space. Peter started SEDS while a student at MIT, Eric was president of the chapter at University of Virginia, and Chris was president of the chapter at University of Arizona and then national chair.

I was president and a co-founder of Maryland SEDS at the University of Maryland, and then later vice chair to Chris' chair, and then national chair myself.

posted 04-24-2012 07:40 PM               

I didn't realize how fast it would sell out or I would have just gotten a ticket when I first saw it on collectSPACE. Most of these kind of things I've been to have a fair turnout but sometimes they're empty... I didn't expect it to be a sellout, so I waited until after I had my two days off this week approved before I snapped up a ticket... SOLD OUT! Ahhhhhh!

I was tempted to go to the museum anyways, watch the press conference, miss the luncheon with spaceflight stories and stick around for a few hours for maybe yes/maybe no couple of free autographs. If I couldn't do the luncheon I decided that was most of the attraction of the event. Tom Jones will be at Spacefest next month so I'm hoping to get a chance to talk to him there and get a few things signed.

Does/did Charles Simonyi sign autographs when he goes to the Museum of Flight events generally? I couldn't find any references to past experiences at MOF with Dr. Simonyi. I only ask because I'm leery of printing off a bunch of expensive giclee prints and never being able to get them signed. Now that I've gotten a bunch giclees printed, I prefer the quality over the much cheaper standard mail order Fuji prints with various inks.

posted 04-24-2012 08:19 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by FullThrottle:
Does/did Charles Simonyi sign autographs when he goes to the Museum of Flight events generally?

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posted 04-24-2012 09:21 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by p51:
As for the ticket, I was shocked to find out it was sold out once I got there. There were several seats available for the lunch, including one right next to me. A good (well, sort of good, anyway) lunch and empty chair saw no use at all.

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When I called the Museum of Flight on Monday to ask about the sold out tickets and get more info on the event, I was told by the person who answered the phone that it more or less wasn't worth bothering to drive 100 miles round trip and absolutely NO additional tickets would be available. But they did say I could attend a "press conference," which didn't sound very exciting compared to dozens of past astronaut speakings I've been to.

Hopefully my consolation prize is Dr. Dunbar will be at a lunch on Thursday, which I was smart enough to request time off way ahead and picked up a ticket a month ago for fear it would sell out with so much time passed from the announcement to the event.

posted 04-25-2012 10:03 PM               

I really didn't grasp the importance of this event until after I got there. There were people from as far away as China who showed up for this. The funny part was I was at a table with only a bunch of engineers and venture capitalist folks (some fundraising folks from the museum later had lunch next to me and they had some interesting comments about the new building).

The others started talking about that whole "elevator to space" thing that was bounced around for a while. They talked and talked about how you could build it and how much it'd cost to do so. After listening for a while, one of them noticed I hadn't said anything and asked why not. I pointed out the elevator idea couldn't be defended and would not only be a massive navigational hazard for airplanes, it'd also be a way-too-easy target for terrorists or other nations (for example, a MIG-25 with the right missiles or a long range surface-to-air missile fired from a ship in international waters).