NASA History list-serv members in the Washington, DC, area may be interested in this opportunity on Monday September 18. This will be a great chance to hear Dr. MacDonald talk about his award winning doctoral research.
Bill Barry
NASA Chief Historian
From: "Muir-Harmony, Teasel" <Muir-HarmonyT@si.edu>
Date: Monday, August 21, 2017 at 5:35 PM
To: "Muir-Harmony, Teasel" <Muir-HarmonyT@si.edu>
Subject: Space Policy & History Forum, Sept 18 , Alexander MacDonald on "Economic Origins of Space Exploration"
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and the Science and Technology Policy Institute are pleased to announce the next Space Policy and History Forum featuring Alexander MacDonald,
Senior Economic Advisor within the Office of the Administrator at NASA. Dr. MacDonald will cover an overview of the content and argument from his recently published book, “The Long Space Age: The Economic Origins of Space Exploration from Colonial America
to the Cold War,” and discuss some of the potential policy applications of his work.
The Forum will take place on Monday, September 18th at 4pm in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s Director’s Conference Room. Please rsvp to Teasel Muir-Harmony,
muir-harmonyt@si.edu, if you plan to attend.
-Teasel Muir-Harmony (NASM) and Bhavya Lal (STPI)


The Long Space Age: The Economic Origins of Space Exploration from Colonial America to the Cold War
Alexander MacDonald
Senior Economic Advisor within the Office of the Administrator at NASA Headquarters
Over the last half-century, there has been a rapid expansion in commerce off the surface of our planet. Nations and corporations have placed hundreds of satellites
that provide billions of dollars’ worth of communications, scientific, global positioning, and commercial services, while construction has been completed on humanity’s ninth and largest space station. On the planet itself, government agencies, corporations,
and individuals plan for the expansion of economic development to the lunar surface, asteroids, and Mars. The future of space exploration seems likely to include a mix of large government-funded missions as well as independent private-sector missions.
The Long Space Age examines the economic history of American space exploration and spaceflight, from early astronomical observatories to the International Space Station, and argues
that the contemporary rise of private-sector efforts is the re-emergence of a long-run trend not a new phenomenon.
Speaker Biography
Dr. Alexander MacDonald
is the Senior Economic Advisor within the Office of the Administrator at NASA Headquarters. He is recognized as an expert on the economic history of American space exploration and contemporary private-sector space activities.
He was previously the founding program executive of NASA's Emerging Space Office which conducts economic analysis on the emerging commercial space sector and which established NASA’s first grants program for economics research. He is the author and editor
of a number of NASA reports including Emerging Space: The Evolving Landscape of 21st Century American Spaceflight, Public-Private Partnerships for Space Capability Development, and Economic Development of Low-Earth Orbit. He is also
an Executive Staff Specialist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a former research faculty member at Carnegie Mellon University, and has worked for the Universities Space Research Association while at NASA’s Ames Research Center where he worked on small
satellite mission designs and served as the center's first research economist on staff. He received his undergraduate degree in economics from Queen's University in Canada, his master's degree in economics from the University of British Columbia, and was a
Clarendon Scholar at the University of Oxford where he obtained his doctorate on the long-run economic history of American space exploration. He was also an inaugural TED Senior Fellow and received the AIAA History Manuscript of the Year Award in 2016.
Date and Time
Monday, September 18, 2017, 4:00-5:00 P.M.
There will be a post-lecture happy hour open to all Forum attendees at Kelly’s Irish Times near Union Station (14 F Street, NW, Washington, DC).
Location, Parking, and Access
The presentation will be held at the National Air and Space Museum, 600 Independence Ave. SW, Washington, D.C., 4:00-5:00 p.m. Space is limited to 50 attendees, so please RSVP to Teasel
Muir-Harmony, muir-harmonyt@si.edu, to get your name on the list. This will be for access to the 3rd floor of the Museum, where we will be meeting in the Director’s Conference Room. You may check-in and obtain a badge for access to the building
at the guard desk just to the right as you enter the Independence Ave. doors. If you have any questions regarding access, please contact Teasel.
About the Space Policy and History Forum
The Space Policy and History Forum is organized by the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution (NASM), with support from the Science and Technology
Policy Institute (STPI), a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) created by Congress to support the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and other Executive Agencies in the Federal Government.
Teasel E. Muir-Harmony, Ph.D.
Curator, Space History Department
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
P.O. Box 37012, MRC 311 Independence Ave. at 6th St., SW
Washington, DC 20013-7012
(202) 633-2378
Muir-HarmonyT@si.edu