John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences

News and information from the UND John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences.

Thesis Proposal by Jerra Turner on March 13th

Space Studies master’s student, Jerra Turner, will give her thesis proposal presentation as follows.  All Space Studies students, faculty and staff are encouraged to attend.

When:  Friday, March 13th at 8:30 a.m.

Where:  Ryan Hall, Room 111

Title: How SpaceX is Fundamentally Changing American Spacelift Policy

About the topic: Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is revolutionizing the space launch industry. Starting off as just a commercial payload provider, they are quickly delving into the world of national security space.  As they do so, they are quickly becoming the more popular launch option and are fundamentally changing the relationship between the American government and all launch providers. The Air Force, in particular, is being forced to change at a quicker pace than its culture typically allows. As SpaceX brings increasing commercial launch business back to the United States, the more political ammunition it’s going to have in its quest to become the world’s premier launch provider and win big contracts from companies such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin. It will also inspire a movement toward a purely commercial launch sector, where commercial launch ranges exist and the only regulating authority is the Federal Aviation Administration and not the United States military. This is going to lead to substantially lower costs because there will not be as many safety requirements. Given all of this leverage, SpaceX is on the cusp of completely revolutionizing the way the world looks at launch, driving rudimentary change to policy itself. In this way, SpaceX is fundamentally changing American spacelift policy.

About the presenter:  Jerra Turner is currently a 1st Lieutenant in the United States Air Force, stationed at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida.  She is a certified Range Control Officer and Range Operations Commander who has worked 12 spacelift launches to date.  She is currently slated to move to Suitland, Maryland in April 2015 to work with the Ground Systems of the Defense Metrologic Satellite Program (DMSP), the only weather satellite constellation owned by the Department of Defense.  She will work closely with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) daily, who operate constellation.   She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Space Operations from the United States Air Force Academy in 2011.