Transcript
Aaron (0:01)
Welcome to We Fixed It. You're welcome. The show where we take over companies, you come along for the ride and
Christopher Hersey (0:07)
we try to put them back better
Aaron (0:09)
than we found them. Today we're talking about something that used to be science fiction and now feels like a check mark on a billionaire's bucket list. Space travel. It's not just for astronauts and cosmonauts anymore. These days it seems anyone who can write a big check can take a joyride into the unknown. And if you've seen the resulting photos and videos, a space voyage looks like summer camp for the uber wealthy. The ultimate experience. And what do you get for the price of admission? Right now we're talking about three to five minutes in zero gravity and then back to the mansion. But this is just getting started. The push to commercialize space travel is escalating and an increasing number of for profit companies want to go to space for their own purposes. It's not too far fetched to think about private space stations, moon bases, maybe even luxury hotels in cities somewhere other than Earth. These are real conversations that are happening and plans are in the works. We're going to figure this all out and ask the question, who does space belong to? Is it governments, corporations that can outspend governments? Should we all go full speed ahead into space for the sake of progress? Or are we collectively pushing the limits of something we don't truly understand yet? Well, Chino, Melissa, I don't claim to be an expert on any of this. Today we're joined by Christopher Hersey. Christopher is a global space executive and the founder and CEO of OSA Consulting where he focuses on expanding access to the space sector for entrepreneurs, startups and organizations around the world. He spent his career at the intersection of space policy and business, advising aerospace companies, working in regulatory and government affairs, and helping shape how commercial space evolves both in the US and globally. Christopher, please tell us more about yourself and also tell us about your nonprofit.
Christopher Hersey (1:57)
Yeah, well, thank you. It was wonderful to be here. Aaron joined by Gino and Melissa to talk about space, my career. I've been in it for almost 20 years and I've worked in a variety of different roles. I've worked at the State Department during the Obama administration and was part of an interagency team running the national space policy. I've worked as both corporate counsel and a director for a company called Bigelow Aerospace, which sent the first expandable commercial habitation module to the International space station in 2015. But also, as you mentioned, I co founded a global nonprofit called the Space Court Foundation. There's a little bit of an irony because there's no courts in space. So we created a foundation ahead of time so that people understand that the rule of law applies to space. And what we do is we promote space law education in the rule of law. We have a global internship program. We take about 30 students a year. We do original research. And you can check us out on our website at www.spacecourtfoundation.org and at Space Court foundation on YouTube, where we have some content directed at getting the general public to understand what actually is space law and regulation and how that works in your daily life. And our flagship pilot that we have there is called Stella Decisis, where we invited three notable professionals in space law to adjudicate a fake space law case that we presented by actual2space lawyers who were actually husband and wife. Well, both of them are very good friends of mine, but one of them was my roommate in law school. So one thing about the space community is while it may seem it's filled with billionaires and multimillionaires, it's filled with a lot of average people who just have a passion for space and want to see space developed in an economical and safe and inclusive way.
