This the the Augustine Commission meeting that took place in Houston, Texas on July 28th, 2009.  This is split in to 12 parts and re-combined as a YouTube playlist.  You can jump from section to section using the navigation at the bottom of the video.


  1. Tom says:
    August 4, 2009 at 4:20 am

    Thank you for posting this video! I have been waiting and hoping this would show up SOMEWHERE. What a world we’ve come to when we have six HD channels of MTV running 24/7, but we have to wait a week and see NASA video on YouTube.

    Reply
    • Benjamin Higginbotham says:
      August 4, 2009 at 4:22 am

      My fault for the delay. The hard drive this was recorded on was in the studio and it took me a couple of days to get to it and cut it up. I have the other two meetings being cut up now and hope to have them online tomorrow night.

      Although, I agree. It is sad that we’ll have 500 people staring at an empty chair for Chris Pirillo, but only a few people watching what will turn out to be the future of human space flight.

      Reply
  2. Christopher Howard says:
    August 4, 2009 at 4:37 pm

    I work nights so I was able to watch this live on the NASA web site, but missed large chunks do to a few naps. Thanks so much for posting! Now I can hit pause when I’m tired…

    Reply
  3. Gary Stephenson says:
    August 9, 2009 at 7:29 pm

    For me the highlight of this session was Steve Lindsey of the NASA Astronaut office. In his talk he pointed out that there are really two gaps to contend with – the gap in human rated US LEO launch capability, and the gap in human habitation as represented by the gap between ISS funding and “next destination” habitation.

    This raises the important issue of whether we really want to splashdown a $100B asset in the ISS, as the Russians and MIR Corp did with the MIR (See “Orphans of Apollo” for that sad story. Its costs a lot of money to get assets to LEO and I would think that recycling and redeployment is ALWAYS he right answer, not wasting it on a re-entry light show.

    Should the ISS outlive the need for itself in its current configuration and orbit, we should seriously consider plans for how to split it up and redeploy the pieces for new missions in support of a more flexible in-space architecture. I will be writing a paper on this topic for my Master’s thesis for the Stevens Institute of Technology Space Systems Engineering program, so if anyone would like their thoughts and ideas on this topic represented in my published trade space please feel free to send them to [email protected]

    Reply
  4. Future Astronaut says:
    August 14, 2009 at 12:53 am

    I wish the Astronauts had been more forward. Something like “We all have giant boners for Mars and we will not be denied.”

    Reply