Guest: Open Lines with Dr. David Livingston. Topics: Space policy, congress, FY 11 NASA budget. This program was an unplanned Open Lines program due to the last minute rescheduling of the planned program. Please note that you are invited to comment, ask questions, and rate this program on the new Space Show blog, http://thespaceshowoutsidethebox.blogspot.com. I read a policy update statement from our friend Henry Vanderbilt of Space Access Society, pertaining to the differences in the House and Senate compromise bills being discussed, and the timing for a House vote on their bill. We also talked about an Orlando Sentinel article indicating that the House and Senate versions were now very close to one another. Our first caller was Bob Zimmerman who talked about the differences between the House and Senate versions of the compromise NASA plan to the plan proposed by President Obama on Feb. 1 of this year. Bob did not think the differences were all that much, that there was a real risk for budget cuts, including cuts of the NASA budget for FY 11 and that the FY-11 proposals represented "pork." He supported many of the provisions that President Obama put forth but they did not translate over to Congress. Bob is the Space Show guest on this subject and more on Thursday, Sept. 29 at 9:30 AM PDT. Following Bob, Amnon called to tell us that Astronauts4Hire has its first customer, an Australian beer company that will do zero-g experiments. You can learn more about this project from the press release his organization put out, www.astronauts4hire.org/2010/09/press-release-astronauts4hire-selected.html. Amnon also created a short survey for space enthusiasts and their friends and families to assess their knowledge about space and issues pertaining to space. He is interested in finding out if we in the space industry are doing a good job of getting the space word out about space. If you want to see and use his survey, you can find it on Amnon's Spacepirations blog at www.spacepirations.com/2010/09/next-space-shuttle-launch-informal-poll.html. Briefly, he is asking us to ask our family, coworkers and friends which Space Shuttle is getting ready for launch, when is the next launch, how many Space Shuttle launches remain after this one and what mission number is it going to be? If you have thoughts or suggestions about his survey, you can post them on his blog. I'm not so sure how many of us space cadets could answer these questions nor am I convinced that this is the priority info that we should have rolling off the tip of our tongues. Let Amnon know your thoughts and results should you use the survey. Our friend Charles called in from Mohave as he has not yet crossed the state line to Nevada on a permanent basis. He commented on the Space Access Society update and kept saying that it was like flogging a dead horse and then repeated his usual comments about policy, how to start off correctly in space development and the Microlauncher concept. He also provided a short personal history of how he landed in Mojave in the first place. During the balance of Open Lines, we continued to talk space policy, the likelihood of the NASA budget being cut depending on the outcome of the November 2nd elections, comments made by Dennis Wingo on his recent Space Show program about the dangers and risks of space companies taking federal money and more. In support of what Dennis said several weeks ago, I again referenced one of the panel discussions from the recent NewSpace conference and earlier comments on the subject by our friend Tom Olson. If you have questions or comments for any of the callers or those asking questions, its best to post them on the Out of the Box blog URL above. You can also email me at drspace@thespaceshow.com.