Wednesday Banquet Plenary Speaker

Russell L. (Rusty) Schweickart

Presentation Title: Planetary defense and recent efforts in the discovery of potentially hazardous NEOs on an accelerated time scale

Russell L. (Rusty) Schweickart is a retired business and government executive and serves today as Chairman of the Board of the B612 Foundation, a non-profit organization that champions the development and testing of a spaceflight concept to protect the Earth from future asteroid impacts. Schweickart retired from ALOHA Networks, Inc. in 1998 where he served as President and CEO from 1996 through 1998. ALOHA was a data communications company specializing in high performance, wireless internet access equipment.

He was formerly the Executive Vice President of CTA Commercial Systems, Inc. and Director of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Systems where he led efforts in developing the GEMnet system, a second generation LEO communication satellite constellation designed to provide regular commercial electronic messaging services on a global basis.

Prior to his CTA work Schweickart founded and was president of Courier Satellite Services, Inc., a global satellite communications company which developed LEO satellites to provide worldwide affordable data services. He has also worked extensively in Russia and the former Soviet Union on scientific and telecommunications matters.

Schweickart is the founder and past president of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE), the international professional society of astronauts and cosmonauts. The organization promotes the cooperative exploration and development of space and the use of space technology for human benefit. The ASE has a current membership of over 300 astronauts and cosmonauts from 29 nations.

The Association's first book, The Home Planet, with a preface by Schweickart, was published simultaneously in 10 nations in the Fall of 1988 and was an immediate international best seller. In 1987-88, Schweickart chaired the United States Antarctic Program Safety Review Panel for the Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) in Washington, DC.

The resulting report, Safety in Antarctica, led to a restructuring of the program, increasing the safety of operations in that hazardous environment.