Law of vacation physics: your body arrives back at work before your head.
Never mind. I just took a quick spin around blogspace (and elsewhere) to grab a small handful of noteworthy items from during my hiatus. (Can I go away again in August?)
Lawyers and legal topics were not ignored at the Space Frontier Foundation's NewSpace 2007 event. Lots of live blogging; action-packed Space Revolution Weekly News has links. I wanted to point out, in particular, Clark's recaps of these legal panels: Surviving a Bad Day in Space: Risk Management Architecture, with Doug Griffith, Bretton Alexander, Kelly Alton and Bob Benzon -- a fairly standard space conference panel; and something a bit different: LoST & SPACE – Two (Space)ships Passing In the Night? with James E. Dunstan, David Gump, Kohl and Mark Siminoff, which contemplated the Law of the Sea Treaty in conjunction with space law. Also, Patti Smith's panel on, of course, Personal Spaceflight Regulations: Moving Forward with Reda Anderson, Jonathan B. Clark and Alex Tai. (See what you miss sipping boat drinks -- almost as good as these antimatter energy beverages -- and reading beach trash?)
By the way, congrats to Clark on winning the "Space Frontier Award: Best Presentation of Space 2007". Well deserved, everyone agrees.
Also at NewSpace 2007, Jeff Foust covered the panel that contemplated the future of NASA under the next administration. (The Space Review.) Rand Simberg blogged the session. (And we're still waiting for Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee's passenger list for a one-way trip to Mars.)
Obligatory ITAR tease: Jeff also reports on comments on ITAR by Ed Morris, director of the Department of Commerce Office of Space Commercialization. (I'd like to see the survey Ed mentions.)
UK space policy: The House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee presented its space policy report. Here is the brief portion on government support and regulation of space toursim. As noted on BNSC's site, "The Government will consider the report carefully and will respond fully in due course." Right.
Biggest news of the month: Northrop Grumman and Scaled Composites -- a hot combo. Lots of folks, including Jon Goff welcome "Northrop's Skunkworks." Very interesting. Pay no attention to naysayers at Business 2.0 blog who worry the new company will "get cold feet about the inherent dangers of spaceflight, and the risk of lawsuits from the estates of rich tourists who find themselves immolated by a malfunctioning space plane."
Armadillo shares a valuable lesson on compliance with an AST permit. (Via the Rocket Dungeon.)
House shuttle/space station hearing today: NASA Watch has links to prepared statements (for those who feel summer is for reading reams of congressional testimony (and who doesn't?)
Space law professor (and occasional blogger -- who knew?) Glenn Reynolds contemplates "a new kind of space age" and predicts he "should be in orbit around 2017." (Popular Mechanics August 2007)
Elon Musk, Rand Simberg, Jeff Foust, Michael Belfiore . . . OK, who isn't appearing on The Space Show this month?
This blog is not Space War Probe, but a reader sent over a link to a free interactive Air & Space Power Course put online by the Air Force. (Updated May 2007.)
From Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy LLP, the June Space Business Review, highlights new satellite and launch services orders and other industry deals.
For COMSTAC connoisseurs: minutes of the May 2007 gathering now online. (Via HobbySpace)
No, you cannot logon to get a masters in space law: But you can earn an LL.M in international tax from Thomas Jefferson School of Law, and LA Legal Pad reports this is "the only online program offered at an ABA accredited law school." As Bob Ambrogi notes, it's not cheap, either.
Space lawyers are standing by in the event of any accident or injury resulting from this week's jettison of space junk by the ISS crew.
Why does this always seem to happen in New Jersey? The mysterious object that crashed through a NJ roof gave rise to no space law claim.
Finally, we can think of this as advice on job security for space lawyers, from John Tierney's essay, A Survival Imperative for Space Colonization (New York Times, July 17, 2007): "If it’s true that civilizations normally go extinct because they get stuck on their home planets, then the odds are against us, but there’s nothing inevitable about the Copernican Principle. Earthlings could make themselves the statistical anomaly. When extinction is the norm, you may as well try to be special."
Belated happy Evoloterra! ;)
* * *
IMAGE: Alas, that's not me chillin' on vacation. (My digital shots are not ready for blogspace.) This is MIT's Prof. Dava Newman modeling her Biosuit-- "a sleek spacesuit that relies on mechanical counter-pressure instead of using gas pressurization." She's also enjoying Henry Moore's sculpture "Reclining Figure" on MIT's campus. Donna Coveney snapped the photo. And yes, Spiderman is jealous of Dava's threads.
// posted by Jesse Londin @
5:10 PM 
