MEETING REPORT: USAFA AOG SPACE CHAPTER PLANNING

On September 23, several interested grads and others met at USAFA to discuss what the graduate community can do to promote better awareness of current and potential USAF space activities, and to review progress on actions which we discussed with the USAFA leadership in May. Attendees are identified at the end of this report. Also, I received specific suggestions from many of you who could not attend, which I brought up during the discussions.

We began by reviewing steps needed to establish a Chapter of the Association of Graduates (as recommended by the USAFA leadership) with Wayne Taylor and Gary Howe of the AOG staff. I will send them the draft Charter we drew up last spring. They also recommended that we open membership to non-grads. Your thoughts?

Jim Shaw, AOG Executive Director, requested that we put an article in Checkpoints to describe Chapter activities (my action) and that grads with space experience write short articles on their experiences for the magazine. Volunteers?

Jim Shaw is participating in the development of the USAFA Strategic Plan, which he shared with us. The current draft recognizes the importance of space to the AF, and includes a mission statement aimed at producing leaders which have "a well-developed understanding of how space systems/technologies impact terrestrial operations and future AF fighting capabilities." A recognized challenge is to "provide meaningful Space Force operational experiences to cadets on the same level as flying and jump programs." We should work with the AOG to help flesh out this Plan.

In fact, we have been requested to help identify ideas for a "Spacemanship" program, for either the summer or during the academic year. We discussed the idea of taking local field trips and found that the Astro Dept already does this. (I later spoke with some cadets who had taken the trips, and they were disappointed that the tours they got were the same as given to the general public, and were somewhat boring. I don't know if this is a common reaction.)

Although there were no specific space-related activities at last summer's Global Engagement excercise, planning is underway to include space support next year, as Col. Mike DeLorenzo had suggested. Speaking of summer activities, I found an AF contact at MIT who has helped arrange KC-135 0-G rides, and I plan to follow up and see if similar experiences can be arranged for USAFA cadets.

Instead of starting a cadet club for space as we had recommended, the faculty had suggested we work with the AIAA student chapter. Dr. Julie Morrow, faculty AIAA sponsor, is eager to work with us but was unable to attend the meeting. I will follow up with that contact. I also discovered a chapter of the National Space Society at USAFA, which I will also contact.

Gary Howe also suggested that we would be useful contacts for cadets who are interested in space careers.

Mike DeLorenzo noted that the they could still use help arranging lunchtime brown bag training sessions for the faculty.

I don't know if any progress has been made in contacting local professional society chapters, although Van VanInwegen and Larry Fortner (and others, I'm sure) are active in those groups.

A USAFA-built smallsat is planned for launch this fall or winter. Next, LCol Gary Yale and Maj Chesley will notify us when reviewers are needed for the Falconsat 2 PDR.

LGen Jay Kelley has been invited by the Superintendent to speak to the Wing later this year about space and missile activities and experiences. We will work with the USAFA Distinguished Speakers Program to arrange future speakers (contact: Capt Noel Fulton, 333-3710).

A Space Doctrine and Strategy course is now planned for the fall of 2000 (contact: Capt Mark Wert, 333-3258). Regarding the status of the Space Operations major (not yet an accredited degree), the faculty is waiting to see if the classes of 2002 and 2003 show interest.

I have spoken with the AF Space Operations Association (AFSOA) regarding the availability of historical material for display in the Cadet Area. The faculty indicated interest in such a project (contacts: LCol Mike Caylor and Maj Elsa Bruno from the Astro Lab). [Let me me know if you'd like more info on AFSOA.]

Mike DeLorenzo had also put me in contact with LCol Don Planalp, USAFA Director of Public Relations, who, in turn introduced me to Maureen Kimmell of Kimmell Graphics, which has developed a concept for improving the displays at the USAFA Visitor Center. She joined our meeting to discuss how space activities and career opportunities could be depicted in these displays, and also how to improve space awareness in the Cadet Area.

As we had suggested, the Astro Department is putting emphasis on systems engineering (including lessons learned from flight experiences about the importance of systems engineering).

Finally, we reviewed the recently-published USAFA Gift Needs list to identify space-related areas for which the Academy feels it needs external support.

As a follow-up to these discussions, we agreed to contact the new Commandant (BGen Welch).

So, that's my report. What we need from you is:

- feedback on these ideas and discussions.

- specific things you can do to help, including

- offers of financial support for cadet activities. Contributions will be handled by the AOG and are tax deductable. If you are interested, I can detail what's in the Needs List and other ideas needing support. Of course, company matching contributions are also very helpful.

Many thanks for your interest,

Stan Rosen

Attendees at 23 September meeting:

LCol Mike DeLorenzo

Capt Matt Carroll

Jim Shaw

Wayne Taylor

Gary Howe

Maureen Kimmell

Cary Clovicko

Stan Rosen