I've just come back from the 1997 "March Storm" in Washington, and I am still glowing. It was a really terrific experience.
     I've been involved in many different space activities in the last 18 years, but in all that time I don't think I've ever been part of any space event more effective -- or better run -- than March Storm. And it was a lot of fun.
     More than 60 space activists came to Washington, DC on March 9-14 to brief Congressional staffers about the need to open the space frontier. We talked with them about the need to commercialize space, including the station once it is built; build X vehicles (especially the X-33, the proposed X-37 and the military space plane); get NASA to focus on cutting edge technologies and exploration including the moon and Mars rather than routine operations in LEO which could be turned over to private industry; and improve the regulatory climate for the small companies trying to build reusable launch vehicles.
     On Monday and Tuesday alone we had well over 200 appointments, and although those were the most intense days, there were some volunteers who stayed all week. My team (two to four people, usually including NSS volunteer George Smith) had seven appointments Monday (staffers for four Congressmen and three Senators) and five on Tuesday (one Congressman, staffers for three Senators and another Congressmen's staffer).
     Before anyone went to the hill, though, we all spent Sunday in a full day of very well-organized practical training.
     The most important thing the trainers stressed was the need to communicate our vision to the staffers. First they had all 60 of us line up, facing each other, and had each of us explain to the person opposite us (in 30 seconds) why we had felt it worthwhile to spend our own money and time coming to Washington to do this. Then we moved down the line and did it again, over and over.
     Then they put on scripted skits showing things like: how to work together as teams, how to brief a congressional staffer, what not to do, how to handle the various types of reactions we might run into, and how to take careful notes about what the staffers said (to be used in future campaigns). Finally, the more experienced volunteers took turns playing the role of staffers, giving everyone a turn to practice briefings.
     Congressman Dana Rohrabacher's space aide Jim Muncy, NSS Director David Anderman and others discussed the issues with the volunteers and answered their questions.
     On Monday, we met at 7:30 am in the House's Rayburn Building cafeteria for breakfast and to get final corrections to our appointment schedules and more information about the Members of Congress who's staff we would be seeing. By 9 am we were all at our first appointments.
     It didn't take long before I realized just how much we were accomplishing. Although the staffers see plenty of professional lobbyists, including some from the big aerospace companies, they were generally very impressed to learn that we were all private citizens who had come on our own time, at our own expense, even though we had no financial stake in the issues.
     Time after time legislative assistants who are in charge of space policy for key legislators started out knowing practically nothing about our issues ("what's an X-vehicle"?) and ended up saying things like, "What you're saying makes a lot of sense. I'll try to get my boss to co-sponsor the Space Commercialization Bill."
     Former NSS Director Ben Muniz and the rest of the leadership team all did a great job, but Susan Heney did an absolutely miraculous job setting up all those appointments so each team went to the offices of the legislators from their own or nearby states, met with the right people and had almost no wasted time.
     One reason we had fewer appointments on Tuesday was that we all took time out for a meeting with Dan Goldin and Congressman Rohrabacher in the House Science Committee hearing room. Among those attending were Jim Muncy and ex-NSS Executive Director Lori Garver, who now sports an impressive looking NASA ID badge. Although there were a few points of disagreement of how to implement space commercialization, generally the NASA Administrator seemed to me to be agreeing with 90% of what we were saying.
     Each evening we all met at a convenient restaurant to hand in our reports and compare notes and have a good time.
     Although March Storm is organized by Charles Miller's ProSpace (chazeugene@aol.com), an off-shoot of the Space Frontier Foundation, just about every volunteer I talked with was (or had been) a member of NSS. Unfortunately, although "Chaz" Miller wanted NSS involvement, he had been unable to reach an agreement with Bob Zubrin to have NSS cooperate. Personally, I think that is a shame, and I sincerely hope that NSS will be able to play an active part in supporting next year's effort. But whether or not it does, I most strongly urge every NSS member to plan to come and participate, if at all possible, in March Storm 1998.
     If you are going to do just one thing for space next year, this should be it.

On Saturday, March 8, 1997, Student Space Awareness held it's first Student Space Congress. SSC was held at the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University in D.C. Being our first year, we considered it a great success.
     The morning session consisted of various student presentations by David Steare, Michael Hall, Tony DeTora, David Bayer and Carolyn Shlatz on what SSA is about and what it has been doing since it was founded a few years ago. Eligar Sadeh (A NASA Fellow Graduate from Colorado University) spoke about international cooperation in space. Students from as far as Washington State and California to as close as the Washington D.C. area listened and found how they can start up an organization on their campus as well as some of the other programs SSA offers. The focus of the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University chapter in Daytona Beach was the new web site it is currently creating that will be up and running very soon. The educational visits were also a focus. Children at a local elementary school have been being taught by SSA members about the International Space Station, Life on Mars, the Planets, Future Spacecraft and the Space Shuttle. The morning session ended with a student open discussion which deemed to be very valuable. SSA was seen from many views and possibilities were discussed for the future, including cooperation with other space organizations and the International Space Station (no more will be said about that at this time).
     After lunch, four students, David Steare, Tony DeTora, Carolyn Shlatz, and Michael Richardson gave 10 minute presentations on some of the pressing issues in today's space policy including the Reusable Launch Vehicle Program, Life on Mars, International Space Station, Hubble Space Telescope, and World Cooperation. Although we had to cut the speeches due to time constraints from lunch, they were very informative and precise enough to impress even our guest speakers.
     The rest of the afternoon session consisted of 4 guest speakers. Three of whom were placed on a panel for everyone to ask questions and anyone answer. The speakers included Michael Hawes, the Deputy Director of the Space Station Requirements talked about ISS and it's future. Captain Matthew Rogers, US Navy, Department of Defense Space Architect's Office discussed space and the military. Also, 3 time mission specialist, Charlie Walker joined us from McDonnell Douglas and spoke about space being a place and an opportunity and not a "program". These three gentlemen answered many questions both on and off their topic and no question was left unanswered. The fourth speaker was Charles Miller President of ProSpace. ProSpace is an organization who lobbies Congress for current and future space projects. He encouraged and welcomed all students who wanted to take part. This year 6 of SSA's members worked with ProSpace and National Keep It Sold (another advocating organization for space).
     During our time in Washington, some members were also introduced to Dan Goldin, NASA Administrator, while others spoke about space to the staff at the White House.
     SSA would like to thank the Space Policy Institute at George Washington University, the D.C. Space Grant Consortium, all the guest speakers, all the students who helped make this possible and most of all those of you who took the initiative to attend and educate yourselves, you deserve and will make the difference. Student Space Congress was a great success making Student Space Awareness an outstanding success. The organization is continuing to grow and will strive to become the best at what it is capable of. The possibilities are endless for SSA just as the opportunities are endless for everyone in the vastness of space. See you next year at Student Space Congress!
     For more information, contact, Student Space Awareness, c/o/ Student Activities, ERAU, 600 S Clyde Morris Blvd, Daytona Beach, FL 32114.

A combination of an electrical problem, increasing winds, and increasing air traffic resulted in a scrub of the first attempt to launch the Project HALO Space Launch 1 rockoon on Saturday, March 22. With winds forecasted to be breezier on March 23, the Project HALO team decided to scrub for the weekend and to try again at a later date. The group has tentatively selected May as the month for the second attempt.
     The electrical problem has been traced to a electronic timer in the gondola electronics package - part of the backup safety system for the rockoon. The timer, which was to have triggered seven hours after switching to internal battery power, instead triggered less than ten minutes later. The most probable cause was radio interference from an ATV (amateur television) transmitter.
     The backup safety system is designed to enable release of the gondola from the balloon in case the balloon drifts off course or the rocket does not fire. (The primary means to release the gondola is for the rocket to launch right through the balloon.) Once released, the gondola would fall and pull on two cords. One cord would deploy the gondola parachute. The other cord would pull open a "tear-out panel" on one side of the balloon, which would allow helium to escape and the balloon to float back to the earth.
     The gondola release system is composed of two "cut-down squibs" attached to ropes on either side of the gondola. The cut-down squibs are fired in a pre-programmed sequence triggered either by a coded uplink command or by the backup timer. Despite the timer problem, the sequence did proceed as programmed and both cut-down squibs successfully cut through their ropes. A minute later, as programmed, two other cut-down squibs attached to the tear-out panel cord also fired successfully.
     The squibs fired at about 7:20 AM. The Project HALO team was slightly behind schedule due to this being their first nighttime operation. The FAA had been called and had agreed to extend the launch window from 6:30 AM to 7:30; but they warned that air traffic would be increasing after that. The large plastic helium balloon was inflated and ready to carry the rocket and gondola to 90,000 feet. The SL-1 rocket was fueled and ready for its historic mission to become the first amateur rocket, and the first hybrid rocket, to reach space. Winds had increased overnight, however, and were beginning to become breezy, so the launch was scrubbed.
     The Huntsville Alabama L5 Society (HAL5), a chapter of the grassroots National Space Society (NSS), has spent the past two years developing and testing components for a "rockoon". A rockoon is a rocket that is launched from a high altitude balloon. The rockoon approach allows a small rocket to obtain a very high altitude because there is little air to slow it down during launch. Rockoons were first flown by James Van Allen in the 1950's as part of a joint Navy/university project, but were abandoned when sufficiently large ground-based sounding rockets became available.
     HAL5 has updated the rockoon concept using 1990's amateur rocketry and electronics technology. HAL5's goal is to make space more affordable for students, amateurs, experimenters, and researchers. The HAL5 program, started in July of 1994, is called Project HALO, for High Altitude Lift-Off.
     The HALO rocket utilizes hybrid propulsion, whereby an inert solid fuel is kept safely away from a liquid oxidizer until the rocket is ignited. The solid fuel used for the HALO rocket is pure asphalt, the same material used on streets and roofs. The liquid oxidizer used for the rocket is nitrous-oxide, the same "laughing gas" used by dentists. After constructing their own rocket motor test facility in early 1995, HAL5 has since performed over 50 static firings of its hybrid rocket motors. HAL5 successfully launched a test hybrid rocket from the ground in Manchester, Tennessee in April of 1996.
     Due to limitations of recovery boats, the balloon was to be launched inland, from a farm in Cerro Gordo, North Carolina (about 60 miles west of Wilmington). March winds would have carried the balloon ESE as it rises to 90,000 feet. The command to launch the rocket would be sent only once the balloon is safely over open ocean and the rocket pointed away from land.
     Floating in the frigid stratosphere, the balloon will be brittle enough to "pop" when the HALO rocket safely shoots through it. HAL5 successfully launched a smaller 19,000 cu. ft. capacity plastic balloon from Huntsville, Alabama in September of 1996. HAL5 also has successfully sent six smaller latex rubber balloons to the edge of space, which have carried both rocket test parts, electronics, and student experiments.
     The second rockoon attempt has been tentatively scheduled for May, contingent upon resolving the electrical problem and on raising sufficient money. About $5,000 is needed to cover some remaining expenses for the first attempt and to cover the second. Donations from private individuals are more than welcome and would be very much appreciated. For more information, send E-mail to hal5@iquest.com or visit: http://iquest.com/~hal5/HALO/