We will have a special meeting of officers and Board members at the home of Anita Gale at 6:30 in the evening of Monday, May 13th to discuss a proposed joint project with the Space Settlement Design Competition group. While participation will be limited, as a 501c3 nonprofit our meeting will be open for all to attend. Sandwiches and refreshments will be available. We request an RSVP from anyone not on the Board roster so that we can have adequate comestibles to enjoy! If you want to RSVP or need directions to Anita’s, just send an email to info@nss-houston-moon.org for more information.

Chapter meeting:
Monday the 15th, 7:00 p.m.

Celebrate Tax Day with the Clear Lake Area Chapter! Our regular chapter meeting will be on Monday, April 15h in the conference room of the Bay Area Community Center in Clear Lake Park. Doors open at 6:30; meeting begins at 7:00 p.m. Light refreshments, sodas and bottled water will be available; this month I’m planning on mini sub roll sandwiches from HEB. The address is 5002 NASA Road 1; Seabrook, Texas. The Community Center is north of NASA 1, away from the lake; enter through the side door adjacent to the parking lot as the main entrance may be locked after 5:00 p.m.

Our next regularly scheduled meeting following this one will be on Monday, June 17th; same time and place. Looking forward to seeing you then, too!

Anita Gale Residence
18506 Upper Bay Road
Nassau Bay, Texas

Anita Gale is hosting our Chapter’s annual Christmas Party in her home at 18506 Upper Bay Road in Nassau Bay, across NASA 1 and down the road just a few blocks from the Space Center this Sunday, December the 16th beginning at 5:30 pm. Come and join us for a happy holiday celebration!

We’ll be having hearty appetizers and finger foods as well as Anita’s legendary selection of adult and soft beverages. In-kind contributions of food and snacks will be eagerly accepted, along with homemade desserts! (Note: A themed cake is coming!)

We would appreciate an RSVP email to info@nss-houston-moon.org so that we know how many to plan for. No charge for the party, but contributions towards the refreshments will be accepted with our thanks. Children are welcome with appropriate adult supervision; Anita describes her home as “kid-friendly but not kid-safe.” Please note that adult beverages will be available, so plan accordingly.

For those of you who attempted to access this web site in the past couple of weeks and got only the giant sucking sound, I apologize. Our website was formerly hosted with IX web hosting, but they sold out to Site 5 who raised prices and changed terms of service and did other generally nasty stuff. I think…I hope!…that I’ve repaired all the damage by now. Currently I’m self-hosting, but I plan to seek out another provider such as (possibly) Digital Ocean in the near future. Please let us know of any future “hiccups” you might encounter in our service!

 

The next regular meeting of the Clear Lake Area National Space Society & Moon Society chapter will be on Monday, April 16th in the conference room of the Bay Area Community Center in Clear Lake Park. Doors open at 6:30; meeting begins at 7:00 p.m. Light refreshments, sodas and bottled water will be available. The address is 5002 NASA Road 1; Seabrook, Texas. The Community Center is north of NASA 1, away from the lake; enter through the side door adjacent to the parking lot as the main entrance may be locked after 5:00 p.m.

The NSS Chapters Assembly has requested our input on some agenda items, including the proposed nomination of Senator Bridenstine as NASA administrator; proposals to aid the Puerto Rico chapter as they recover from Hurricane Maria; alternative plans/uses for the ISS as it nears end-of-life; and discussion of the Scott Kelly “twins study”. Feel free to voice your opinions on these topics and to bring up additional matters which may be of interest to the CA at our meeting.

We will also be discussing proposals for social events this summer. See you there!

The next regular meeting of the Clear Lake Area National Space Society & Moon Society chapter will be on Monday, February 19th in the conference room of the Bay Area Community Center in Clear Lake Park. Doors open at 6:30; meeting begins at 7:00 p.m. Light refreshments, sodas and bottled water will be available. The address is 5002 NASA Road 1; Seabrook, Texas. The Community Center is north of NASA 1, away from the lake; enter through the side door adjacent to the parking lot as the main entrance may be locked after 5:00 p.m.

 

The Clear Lake Area NSS & Moon Society Chapter added yet another chapter to an already successful 2017 Texas Legislative Blitz. After meeting with Congressman Gene Green (D-TX29) in July and with Jeannie Kranz, a key staffer to Congressman Brian Babin (R-TX36) in October, our briefing team had a very productive meeting with Congressman Randy Weber (R-TX14), whose district spans the Texas Gulf Coast from Beaumont through Galveston to Freeport, on the morning of Friday, December 15th in his League City office. We discussed the proposed Cis-Lunar Commercialization Act and the SEDS Act which has been introduced by Mr. Rohrabacher of California at some length. We also had time to briefly discuss the NEOCAM telescope for monitoring near-Earth space from the Earth-Sun L1 point which has been proposed by JPL. The Congressman engaged us throughout and even quizzed us to determine our grasp of the points we were discussing.

Photo below, left to right: John Cook, constituent of district TX-14; Congressman Randy Weber; Eric Bowen, CLA-NSS/MS chapter president; David Cheuvront, NSS Policy Committee.

Anita Gale Residence
18506 Upper Bay Road
Nassau Bay, Texas

Anita Gale is hosting our Chapter’s annual Christmas Party in her home at 18506 Upper Bay Road in Nassau Bay, across NASA 1 and down the road just a few blocks from the Space Center on Monday, December the 11th beginning at 6 pm. Come and join us for a happy holiday celebration!

We’ll be having hearty appetizers and finger foods as well as Anita’s legendary selection of adult and soft beverages. In-kind contributions of food and snacks will be eagerly accepted, along with homemade desserts!

We would appreciate an RSVP email to info@nss-houston-moon.org so that we know how many to plan for. No charge for the party, but contributions towards the refreshments will be accepted with our thanks. Children are welcome with appropriate adult supervision; Anita describes her home as “kid-friendly but not kid-safe.” Please note that it’s a very large home and adult beverages will be available, so plan accordingly.

Note: A date of Saturday, December 16th was issued while this event was in pre-planning status. After consultation with our hostess, we elected to change the date to Monday, December 11th. Please disregard any earlier communication with the Saturday date.

The Annual Meeting of the Clear Lake Area Chapter was held at the Bay Area Community Center on Monday evening, October 16th. Seven members attended, including two chapter officers and one director. Chapter business included:

• Election of Officers: The following slate of officers was elected by acclamation: Eric Bowen, Chapter President; Doug Hall, Vice-President; Jay Lewchanin, Treasurer; Marianne Dyson, Director, Position 1; Keith Dauzat, Director, Position 2; Larry Friesen, Director, Position 3. The Chapter welcomes Mr. Dauzat to fill out our complement of Directors; our position for a Secretary is still vacant should anyone wish to volunteer.
• NSS Heinlein Award Chapter Ballot: Our chapter is entitled to a group vote for the Heinlein award recognizing lifetime contributions to a spacefaring civilization; members who are active in NSS are also encouraged to cast their own personal ballots. After discussion, our Chapter cast its first choice vote for Captain Gene Cernan of Apollo 17; its second choice vote for Mr. Peter Kokh, long-time publisher of Moon Miners’ Manifesto; and its third choice vote for General Michael Collins of Apollo 11.
• Texas Legislative Blitz: While August is past, there remains a potential opportunity to reach out to influential legislators in our area. Our chapter has three active members who are constituents of Mr. Brian Babin, chairman of the House subcommittee on space; and at least one active member who is a constituent of Randy Weber, member of the House committee on science, space, and technology. We spent some time discussing plans to reach out to these members of Congress and/or their staffs.