California Space Authority - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The California Space Authority (CSA) was a nonprofit corporation

Corporation

A corporation is created under the laws of a state as a separate legal entity that has privileges and liabilities that are distinct from those of its members. There are many different forms of corporations, most of which are used to conduct business. Early corporations were established by charter...

representing the commercial, civil, and national defense/homeland security interests of California's diverse space enterprise community in four domains: Industry

Industry

Industry refers to the production of an economic good or service within an economy.-Industrial sectors:There are four key industrial economic sectors: the primary sector, largely raw material extraction industries such as mining and farming; the secondary sector, involving refining, construction,...

, Government

Government

Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...

, Academia

Academia

Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...

, and Workforce

Workforce

The workforce is the labour pool in employment. It is generally used to describe those working for a single company or industry, but can also apply to a geographic region like a city, country, state, etc. The term generally excludes the employers or management, and implies those involved in...

. CSA was also a participating member in the Coalition for Space Exploration

Coalition for Space Exploration

The Coalition for Space Exploration is an advocacy organization for space industry businesses and non-profit groups supporting continued government investment in space exploration.-Members of the Public Affairs Team:*Aerojet...

. It officially ceased operations on June 10, 2011.

Overview

Former schoolteacher, Assemblywoman and Congresswoman Andrea Seastrand

Andrea Seastrand

Andrea Seastrand was a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives.Seastrand was born in Chicago, Illinois and graduated from DePaul University with a B.A. in 1963. She worked as an elementary school teacher and was president of the California Federation of Republican Women...

served as the Executive Director of CSA, which was governed by a statewide board of directors

Board of directors

A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...

, composed of twelve members elected by the CSA Membership. Four directors were selected from each of CSA's three regions (Northern, Central, and Southern California) during elections that are held in the Fall in which each director was elected to a 3-year term. The terms of office were staggered such that half of the seats on the board are up for election each year. The Board would also fill additional 1-year seats with CSA members to ensure adequate representation was met across CSA's constituent types (industry, government, academia, large, small, etc.).

Designated as California's Spaceport

Spaceport

A spaceport or cosmodrome is a site for launching spacecraft, by analogy with seaport for ships or airport for aircraft. The word spaceport, and even more so cosmodrome, has traditionally been used for sites capable of launching spacecraft into orbit around Earth or on interplanetary trajectories...

Authority, CSA was tasked by the state of California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

to operate as a member-based "enterprise" association that worked closely with individual, corporate, state and local government and academic stakeholders throughout the state. The main purpose of CSA was to facilitate California's competitiveness within the aerospace industry. In this capacity, CSA was also authorized to facilitate development of California-based spaceports.

Including space-related companies, individual entrepreneurs, government agencies, non-profit organizations and College

College

A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...

and University

University

A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...

research programs, California's space enterprise provides or supports the delivery of hundreds of space-related products and services to the state and the nation. The total economic impact of California's space enterprise (Commercial, Civil, National Security) was estimated to be in excess of $120 billion dollars. Representing 24% of the global space market, California space enterprise impacts over 251,000 jobs statewide.

Some of the CSA's major responsibilities were to:

Serve as the official voice of the State of California on space technology issues to the federal government, other state governments, local governments and the private sector;
Act as the official policy advisor to the Governor and State Legislature on space-related matters;
Link statewide resources and capital to California space and technology enterprises;
Promote California as an international center of space technology;
Coordinate the development of the California Strategic Space Plan, and;
Design and administer a competitive grant program.

History

The predecessor organization to the California Space Authority (CSA) was the California Space and Technology Alliance (CSTA). The first CSA Board of Directors was seated in January 2001.

The California Space and Technology Alliance was established in 1996 as a 501(c)(6) non-profit organization to foster development of space industry and was officially recognized by the state when Governor Pete Wilson

Pete Wilson

Peter Barton "Pete" Wilson is an American politician from California. Wilson, a Republican, served as the 36th Governor of California , the culmination of more than three decades in the public arena that included eight years as a United States Senator , eleven years as Mayor of San Diego and...

signed Assembly Bill

Bill (proposed law)

A bill is a proposed law under consideration by a legislature. A bill does not become law until it is passed by the legislature and, in most cases, approved by the executive. Once a bill has been enacted into law, it is called an act or a statute....

1475 into law in October 1997. AB 1475, co-sponsored by state Senator John Vasconcellos

John Vasconcellos

John B. Vasconcellos Jr. is an American politician from California and member of the Democratic Party. He represented the Silicon Valley as a member of the California State Assembly for 30 years and a California State Senator for 8 years...

and Assemblymembers Jim Cunneen, laine K. Alquist] ] and Liz Figueroa

Liz Figueroa

Liz Figueroa is a Democratic politician. She served as a California State Senator, representing the 10th District.She ran for California Lieutenant Governor in the June 6, 2006 primary election, against fellow state senator Jackie Speier and Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi. Figueroa received...

created the CSTA "to foster the development of specified activities in California related to space flight." The vision of the CSTA was that "California leads the world in space education, research, technology, manufacturing, services and transportation."

The bill also authorized the CSTA to function as the California Spaceport Authority (one of five spaceport authorities in the nation) and set forth the duties of the CSTA. One such duty was to administer the Space Flight Competitive Grant Program.

Prior to enactment of AB 1475, California, which had been a leader in the space industry, did not have a coordinated, statewide voice on space issues. By creating the CSTA, AB 1475 provided a vehicle for such a unified voice. The CSTA served as the official policy advisor to the Governor and the Legislature on space-related matters, while acting as an advocate for the state on space technology issues (CA Government Code 15333.3).

Governed by a statewide board of directors, the space authority was a private nonprofit group whose headline members included Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin is an American global aerospace, defense, security, and advanced technology company with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, in the Washington Metropolitan Area....

, Boeing

Boeing

The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...

, Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman

Northrop Grumman Corporation is an American global aerospace and defense technology company formed by the 1994 purchase of Grumman by Northrop. The company was the fourth-largest defense contractor in the world as of 2010, and the largest builder of naval vessels. Northrop Grumman employs over...

and Raytheon

Raytheon

Raytheon Company is a major American defense contractor and industrial corporation with core manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. It was previously involved in corporate and special-mission aircraft until early 2007...

. However, it had managed more than $16 million in taxpayer funds since the 1990s.

Over the past decade, the group’s major focus was the California Space Center, a proposed 500000 square feet (46,451.5 m²) complex envisioned as providing education, entertainment, cultural activities and office space just outside of the only spaceport on the West Coast at Vandenberg Air Force Base

Vandenberg Air Force Base

Vandenberg Air Force Base is a United States Air Force Base, located approximately northwest of Lompoc, California. It is under the jurisdiction of the 30th Space Wing, Air Force Space Command ....

in Santa Barbara County.

In January 2011, the CSA was within months of signing a final lease with the Air Force and breaking ground. However, just two months later in March, CSA leadership halted those plans. The space authority said it had determined the California Space Center would have had to navigate Santa Barbara County’s strict environmental review process, which would have added three to five years of hearings and approvals before construction could start. CSA had signaled its intent to move the center within the city limits of Lompoc, where city leaders welcomed the project.

On June 10, 2011, officials announced the CSA Board of Directors had agreed the previous Monday to begin the dissolution process, with members voting in favor of breaking up the organization. According to Janice Dunn, former deputy director, a lack of funding led to the decision. In the past few months, the organization learned an expected $5 million in federal money wouldn't be coming through, due in large part to the economic recession.

The dissolution also signaled an end to plans to develop the California Space Center. Difficulty in establishing the planned space center were also cited as reasons for dissolving the corporation. Santa Barbara County’s environmental review process was to add and additional three to five years to the process before construction could even start.

"The California Space Authority, Inc., (CSA) has initiated the process of dissolving the non-profit corporation in accordance with state law and the by-laws of the organization,” the group said in an e-mail statement to supporters. “The CSA board of directors voted unanimously on June 6, 2011, to begin the dissolution process and the members of CSA subsequently voted in favor of corporate dissolution. CSA will cease to operate effective today, June 10, 2011." -- Official statement released to media.

External links

CSTA Report to Committee RTC#98-431 City of Sunnyvale, Nov 17, 1998
California Gold for the New Millennium CSA PowerPoint Slide presentation to NASA
Spaceship's flight gets local kudos Santa Maria Times archived story, June 22, 2004
Space Center plans to be discussed Lompoc Record article, Sept 29, 2005

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Overview

History

See also

External links