Export control review seen as positive for space industries

Commercial high-technology products with potential military uses could be easier to sell overseas, if the federal government eases restrictions on exports that have been in place since the Cold War, tech companies said last week.
The Obama Administration announced that it will undertake a comprehensive review of U.S. export controls, while extending the Commerce Department’s emergency [...]

AIAA To Explore ‘New Opportunities’ at Pasadena Conference

“Space: New Opportunities for a New Era” will be the focus of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’ Space 2009 Conference & Exposition, Sept. 14-17 at the Pasadena Convention Center, Pasadena, Calif.
Topics include the rule that space technologies and space exploration will play in filling the need for better STEM education (science, technology, engineering [...]

Space 2.0 Speaker Series launches Aug. 12

Please join us – online or in person – at the inaugural event of the 8th Continent Project’s educational series for tech entrepreneurs
What: “Patent Reform: Are We Headed in the Right Direction? A View From the Trenches.”
When: Weds., Aug. 12, 7-9 a.m. MDT
Where: Law offices of Townsend and Townsend and Crew, 1400 Wewatta St., Suite [...]

Space 2.0 the focus at Rockies Venture Club June 9

The Rockies Venture Club will devote its June 9 dinner meeting to “Space 2.0: The Entrepreneurial Frontier.”
Appearing to discuss how space technology translates to entrepreneurial ventures will be Burke Fort, director of the 8th Continent Project; Gene Branch,  partner at  Townsend and Townsend and Crew’s Denver office; Steve Murchie, director of the Keiretsu Forum’s Denver [...]

Using the mystique of space to sell Vuitton luggage

The News: The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that Louis Vuitton will launch the newest ad in its series of “Journeys” campaigns, featuring celebrity portraits by Annie Leibovitz. Perched on an ancient pickup parked in the desert, windswept, dressed for the road, astronauts Sally Ride, Buzz Aldrin and Jim Lovell gaze at the [...]

DigitalGlobe IPO shows where Space 2.0 can go

The News: Congratulations to founding sponsor DigitalGlobe, whose IPO debuted yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange. Trading under the ticker symbol DGI, the remote sensing company, which had been expected to price at $16 to $18,  hit the market at $19 and rose as much as 31 percent before settling at $21.50 at the [...]

SpaceHack lets real people connect with space exploration

The News: SpaceHack.org was on Wired’s list of top 100 geeks to follow on Twitter. We checked it out and like it a lot.
SpaceHack is a project of Ariel Waldman, a “digital anthropologist” in San Francisco who worked briefly as program coordinator for the NASA CoLab collaboration project at Ames. According to the site, “Spacehack [...]

What’s so Space 2.0 about the Hubble telescope?

The News: As we write this May 13, the team from Space Shuttle Atlantis has snagged the Hubble Space Telescope and stowed it in Atlantis’ payload bay. Next a robot will go over Hubble’s surface, looking for divots in its thermal protection system and other problems. Five spacewalks are scheduled to repair or add components [...]

Media Opportunity: PopSci’s ‘Best of What’s New’

Got a great idea – or a great company? One of our founding sponsors, strategic communications firm Metzger Associates, identified a national competition that seems tailor-made for some of 8th Continent’s chamber members.
Popular Science’s annual “Best of What’s New” showcases innovation in 12 categories, including home technology, green tech, aviation and space, engineering and personal [...]

PharmaSat tests meds in space, small-sat concept

The News: Launching this evening, a 10-pound NASA satellite will test how well antifungal drugs perform in a weightless environment.

The Space 2.0 Connection: PharmaSat and other nanosatellites are proving the small-sat concept. Small enough to piggyback on other launches, these small orbiters allow scientists and businesses to test ideas in space at a fraction [...]