***2012***(0070)

<<Greetings Ivan,>>

Misha and I are settling in well in Kenya, and Misha has already found a role for herself as a math tutor. The university has agreed that if there is demand, they will hire her to teach Russian next term.

The Rocketry club has been dispirited due to a decline in sales of their observation rocket. The rocket is mostly assembled from commercially available components, but the structure is built here at the new on-campus fabrication shop, and it is the best rocket available for parks and wildlife management. It is rugged, capable, and fully and easily reusable (once the solid propellant pack is replaced).

Sales were good at first, and the students were even planning to create a university spin-off corporation such as is common at large technical universities in the developed world. Unfortunately, timing was bad, and the market has mostly evaporated as parks recon becomes domain of helicopter drones.

Yuri (I still have to fight to prevent myself from referring to him as Mr Corbel) is back in Kenya and in good health after successful surgery in Poland. He has resumed his role as club adviser, and guest lecturer, but will remain on teaching sabbatical for the remainder of the term. One of the things he has done in his spare time is to research the involvement of the Kenyan government in spaceflight.

He was surprised to learn that there is, at least in name, a Kenyan space program. Apparently the government had big plans for this at one time. A logo was designed (featuring a giraffe), and there were plans to train astronauts to fly on the US shuttle. Such a flight did, eventually happen, but the astronaut was recruited and trained by the Kenyan Air-Force.

Yuri met, in person, with the man who heads the Kenyan Space Administration (KSA). He is a busy, high-level administrator in the agency which oversees civil aviation and the national airline. His main space-related activity is to answer occasional inquiries into the use of a derelict launch facility that was built on the coast by Europeans back in the late seventies. You might know of it.

Yuri learned that the last such inquiry was made two years ago by a company that hoped to launch high-altitude atmospheric sampling rockets to be funded by the European Climate Commission. The effort was never realized, but the funds are still available, and we are researching how we might become involved. The Rocketry club is back in high-spirits, though their exuberance is tempered by past disappointment.

Rockets seem likely to remain the best and most reliable way do sampling at the required altitudes, and the students are already designing and building mock-ups of a sounding rocket. Air samples taken at the equator are of high value in climate science, and the number of good sites for such launches is limited.

Teaching has been fun, and I am also enjoying walking around campus in a broad-brimmed hat. The students are enthusiastic and hard-working, though holding on to the most promising of them is as difficult as Yuri has said. As you know, the industry has been heating up in America, and youngsters with their hopes set on spaceflight are all aiming at the US private sector.

<<Godspeed friends>>

Boris

“Boris is right about the US private sector.” Said Sergei. “They’ve got big plans, and they’re not bothering to keep anything secret.”

“I was excited by it two years ago…” Ivan looked down.

“Now you feel threatened?”

“Let us say ‘pressured’”

“We could progress faster if another one of us moved South.”

“One thing is certain. It won’t be me.” Ivan placed his cards on the table. “I fold.”

 ***(0080)

“This is where the Mark-1 rockets were launched” Said Yuri, looking down on a small dirt mound, and pulling a piece of wire from the grass that had grown around it. “I’ve looked at the blueprints, and they show a stairwell and a bank of elevators at about this spot.”

“Appropriate.” Replied Boris. “It is amazing what you and Professor Kamburu have accomplished in just two years.”

“Things are moving fast now. I get the feeling we will need to do even more in the next two years.”

“The old guard back home speaks dismissively of the new corporate players.”

“Just the fact that they still exist is an anomaly… and there are other reasons to move fast as well,” Yuri said, holding up his walking cane.

“We could move faster with help. Ivan has been thinking of this place for decades. I am surprised he wasn't here soon after you.”

“He is an important part of the team working on the Vostok redesign. With the recent failures in other programs, that’s become a top priority. He’ll be stuck at home for at least another 2 years.”

“Sergei and Grigori both work in propulsion. That’s what we need if we are to do anything truly ambitious. Sergei is also the closest to retirement.”