| Space Access Society | |
| Founded Date: | 1992 |
| Location: | Phoenix |
| Key People: | Henry Vanderbilt |
| Major Event: | Space Access conference |
| Homepage: | http://www.space-access.org/ |
The Space Access Society (SAS) is an organization dedicated to increasing the viability and reducing the cost of commercial access to space travel. It was founded by Henry Vanderbilt, who was the president from the organizations' founding in 1992 until January 2006.
The SAS is primarily noted for two activities:
The Space Access conferences are well known in the reusable space launch development community and space launch vehicle communities for bringing together key players at most of the companies working in the field, ranging from large conventional aerospace companies such as Boeing and Lockheed-Martin, and smaller companies such as Rotary Rocket, XCOR Aerospace, Pioneer Rocketplane, Armadillo Aerospace and the like. NASA and the Federal Aviation Administration Office of Commercial Space Transportation also have consistently sent representatives. Many Ansari X-Prize team members were consistent attendees.
Presentations at the conference range from informal to viewgraphs and paper handouts. There is no conference proceedings, to encourage the free discussion of issues which participants may not want to go on documented record. Social networking among the industry leaders present is a major feature of the conferences as well.[1]