The National Space Society (NSS) is an international nonprofit 501(c)(3) educational and scientific organization specializing in space advocacy. It is a member of the Independent Charities of America and an annual participant in the Combined Federal Campaign.
The National Space Society's vision is: People living and working in thriving communities beyond the Earth, and the use of the vast resources of space for the dramatic betterment of humanity. — National Space Society vision statement
The Society supports manned space missions as well as unmanned space missions, which are remotely controlled or robotic space probes by both the public (e.g., NASA, Russian Federal Space Agency and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and private sector (e.g., Ansari X Prize, Transformational Space, Scaled Composites, etc.) organizations.
The National Space Society was established in the United States on March 28, 1987, by the merger of the National Space Institute, founded by Dr. Wernher von Braun, and the L5 Society, based on the concepts of Dr. Gerard K. O'Neill.
The society enjoys the support of, and is served by, an elected volunteer Board of Directors and Board of Governors.
The chairman of the society's Board of Governors is former ABC-TV 20/20 host and news anchor Hugh Downs. The chairman of the Board of Directors is Kirby Ikin. The current Executive Director of NSS as of January 2012 is Lt. Col Paul Damhousse, Ret.
Read more about National Space Society: International Space Development Conference, NSS Chapters Network, Awards, Affiliations
Famous quotes containing the words national, space and/or society:
“I foresee the time when the painter will paint that scene, no longer going to Rome for a subject; the poet will sing it; the historian record it; and, with the Landing of the Pilgrims and the Declaration of Independence, it will be the ornament of some future national gallery, when at least the present form of slavery shall be no more here. We shall then be at liberty to weep for Captain Brown. Then, and not till then, we will take our revenge.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The limerick packs laughs anatomical
Into space that is quite economical,
But the good ones I’ve seen
So seldom are clean
And the clean ones so seldom are comical.”
—Anonymous.
“Every individual necessarily labours to render the annual revenue of the society as great as he can. He generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the publick interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it.... He intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.”
—Adam Smith (1723–1790)