Campus Life

Veteran space travelers and leaders of the emerging commercial spaceflight industry gathered in Las Cruces, N.M., Oct. 24 and 25 for the third annual International Symposium for Personal Spaceflight (ISPS 2007).

Two days of presentations, panel discussions and interview sessions covered topics ranging from vehicles and launch systems to space tourism and spaceports. The theme of the symposium, presented by New Mexico State University and the X PRIZE Foundation, was “Our Next Giant Leap: Progress and Next Steps.”

“The symposium was the best way to meet the space explorers and the people developing the vehicles and systems to launch this next giant leap in transportation,” said Patricia Hynes, director of the New Mexico Space Grant Consortium at NMSU and organizer of the symposium. “Here in New Mexico we have begun the first steps toward creating the platform for the success of commercial spaceflight in Spaceport America.”

Robert A. Dickman, executive director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), served as master of ceremonies for the event. The AIAA is a professional technical society with more than 35,000 members in 79 countries. Dickman is a retired Air Force major general.

Confirmed participants included Anousheh Ansari, who became the world’s first female private space explorer when she spent $20 million to fly to the International Space Station last September. She discussed her experience in a session on space tourism.