The strong NASA presence at this year's symposium is clearly represented in our next panel,
where we have gathered six center directors who are leading NASA at a time of transition.
And to lead the discussion, we welcome Dr. David Livingston, the founder and host of
The Space Show.
Dr. Livingston, we look forward to your panel.
Dr. David Livingston: Thank you very much, and thank you also to the Space Foundation
for making this discussion possible.
We really appreciate it.
And I'd like to introduce our panel members today for the center directors' discussion,
in a time of transition.
So, Robert Cabana from Kennedy Space Center, we will have a five-minute opening statement
from each one about transition at their center.
Robert Cabana: So the Kennedy Space Center is the poster child for change during a time
of transition.
In the last six years, we have evolved to be America's premier spaceport.
This was KSC six years ago: One government program, utilizing all the facilities, paying
all the bills.
Today it's a totally different story, as we look at Boeing, SpaceX, Blue Origin.
In all of history only three nations have sent humans to space: the United States, Russia,
and China.
Today there are four United States companies -- with facilities at Kennedy Space Center
-- building hardware to send humans to space.
If you look at Blue Origin, they're building a huge facility in Exploration Park, a research
and development park at the Kennedy Space Center outside the secure perimeter, to build
the New Glenn rocket.
Of course we've got Boeing.
Boeing is located in what used to be Orbiter Processing Facility 3 and also in Orbiter
Processing Facilities 1 and 2 with the Air Force X-37 space plane.
Of course Boeing's entry into the Commercial Crew market is the CST-100 Starliner, and
they're doing a bang-up job down there building that.
If you move off to SpaceX, now you've got the Crew Dragon.
And looking out to what is Launch Complex 39A, what used to be a shuttle and Apollo
launch pad, we've now launched three commercial launches with SpaceX off that facility.
And that's where the crew is going to launch from on the Crew Dragon.
And then rounding it out, of course, we've got Lockheed Martin with the Orion spacecraft
being built in the Operations and Checkout Building high bay.
Partnership with the state of Florida refurbishing that to accommodate Lockheed Martin in there.
Then we look at the Ground Systems Development and Operations Program at Kennedy Space Center,
building the infrastructure to support the Space Launch System.
Tremendous progress has been made.
You know, if you look at SLS and what we're doing, six years ago, inside the Vehicle Assembly
Building, we had the shuttle.
Today, if you look inside High Bay 3, there are 10 adjustable platforms that support this
rocket as it evolves, easily adjustable with inserts as it grows and the outer mode line
changes.
All those platforms are installed.
It's complete.
You know the mobile launcher.
A mobile launch platform that supported shuttle -- today we have a mobile launcher supporting
SLS and a clean pad design.
Here you can see the first umbilical being installed.
All the structural work is complete, all the systems are going into it now.
This will be complete in September of this year.
The high bay will be complete in April of this year, the end of the month -- there's
still some outfitting to do.
And the launch pad, if you look out to the launch pad, it's going to be complete in August.
We're completing the flame trench right now with all of the fire brick and the new flame
deflector.
We are going to be ready when SLS arrives.
I tell my program manager, Mike Bolger, without undue pressure, that KSC will not be the reason
we don't launch on time.
[laughter]
Cabana: You know, if you look at the Kennedy Space Center, five years ago, we had a vision.
And we've made that vision a reality.
Public-private partnerships work.
We have transformed KSC.
And it's not government programs or commercial programs.
If we are going to be successful, it's government and commercial.
We need them both.
They are fully integrated for us to be successful as a nation, and Kennedy is ready to support
the future.
And I think it's an absolutely outstanding one.
Thank you.
Livingston: Thank you to our panel and to all of you who listened and participated.
It's been an honor for me to be the moderator.
And I appreciate the Space Foundation for making all of this possible for all of us
up here and all of you in the room.
Thank you and goodbye everyone.
Have a great rest of the symposium.
[applause]