Several people have requested the text or a link to the video of my keynote address on Tuesday. Thanks to the AAS for providing the link. Get your popcorn and take your seats and when you are through listening please let me know what you think about it
http://panopto-i.akamaihd.net/i/sessions/ce672aec-1e59-4f9a-868b-a8e10b91d901/3f842f66-ed4e-4214-a06c-38bb922566fc-a7c5e688-eb3c-40f9-a3b2-466498201653.mp4/master.m3u8
Or if the first link doesn’t work try getting the video through this
http://twitter.com/#!/astrosociety/status/388312824734572544
Back to shuttle launch stories in a few days!
About waynehale
Wayne Hale is retired from NASA after 32 years. In his career he was the Space Shuttle Program Manager or Deputy for 5 years, a Space Shuttle Flight Director for 40 missions, and has retired from consulting and is currently a full time grandpa. He might be available for speaking engagements for the right incentives (coffee and donuts work!)
Wayne Hale's Blog 
Wayne, as usual I admired your candor and your ability to link together history and the future. Brilliant connection between the politics of America’s rail building and space travel. As for going forward, I liked your mention about commercial providers to LEO. As for exploration? I still think that’s a gov’t activity at least as far as developing the technology to do that. But what should be clear to everyone is that no single government can really afford to spend the money (or create the necessary political drive) required to develop and execute a solid manned exploration program. I think the future of exploration has to be in joint efforts made among wealthy nations.
For those watching the video webcast (the second link) Wayne’s keynote address begins at 00:28 and lasts for thirty minutes, followed by thirty minutes of Q&A with Wayne. The rest of the webcast is a panel discussion with executives from companies involved with SLS.
As usual, what people get out of sound bites will be quite different than the actual content. I found your address to be a great history reminder of how we got to where we are today. Your comparison of the current situation with the well-intentioned but ultimately cancelled initiatives launched by Ronald Reagan, George HW Bush and George W Bush should be received by all involved as a sobering wake-up call to the political and economic realities which will ultimately decide whether the current program reaches completion. Your comments about SLS, especially in the context of your entire message, were not in my opinion either dismissive or threatening, but challenging, and a warning that doing business as usual in the current political climate has no more chance of succeeding than it did in the past. If I heard you correctly it is vital for those involved in the current program to learn not only from the past, but also from the present, by looking at successful innovations and methods that are going on at non-legacy companies and learning from them.
Thanks for making the insightful speech. Can you imagine what we could accomplish if the same savings in the development costs, 90%(!), that we’ve found with the commercial space program could be applied to our beyond low Earth orbit missions?
Bob Clark