Golden Spike Plans Commercial Moon Flights

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Ken O’Brien
The "Golden Spike" was the ceremonialfinal spike driven by Leland Stanford to join the rails of the FirstTranscontinental Railroad across the United States connecting the Central Pacificand Union Pacific railroads on May 10, 1869, at Promontory Summit, UtahTerritory.
Now the name has been adopted by a private ventureplanning to bring commercial lunar travel to reality by the end of the decade.
 The firm isthe brainchild of former NASA science chief Alan Stern and Gerry Griffin, aformer Apollo flight director and former director of NASA’s Johnson SpaceCenter.
Griffin, who also served as deputy director ofKennedy Space Center, said the technical know-how to explore space has grown sowidespread over recent years that it's spawned a slew of private-sectorstart-ups, including Golden Spike, that wouldn't have existed a decade ago.

Dr. Alan Stern

"We're in the midst of a historic era incommercial space flight," he said during a news conference last Thursdayat the National Press Club.

"The time is ripe for commercial human lunarexploration," Griffin told journalists.

Stern said GoldenSpike's experienced team of board members and advisers gave him confidence thatthey'd be able to make good on what sounds like a supremely overambitious plan."We realize this is the stuff of science fiction," he said. "Weintend to make it science fact."
The company plans to use existing rockets and employemerging commercial-crew technology to keep costs relatively affordable.

Gerry Griffin

Griffin said it's not clear yet where launches willtake place.
Stern said they expect to sign up as many as 15-20countries or foreign space agencies as well as companies and individuals whowant to explore the moon for science or adventure.
Golden Spike was incorporated in 2010. The Board ofDirectors includes former NASA engineers, astronauts and managers – includingthe highly respected former Space Shuttle Program (SSP) manager Wayne Hale,along with commercial space notables, such as former SpaceX program manager forthe Dragon spacecraft, Max Vozoff. The company’s board of advisors alsoincludes Newt Gingrich, former US Speaker of the House of Representatives, whocited his interest in a lunar base during his campaign as a US presidentialcandidate.