Small World.  Last year I was getting my hair cut in North Hollywood and to fill the down time I was reading the 2011 Space Report from the Space Foundation.  There was a guy there who kept looking over at the book and as we were waiting for the credit card machine to come back from the dead he introduced himself as a "friend" of a small local satellite company and he was amazed that someone who didn't work for BigOldSpace would be owning - let alone reading - the Report. 

He had a touch of envy in his eyes when he said that if his company could get a copy it would be torn up from being passed around and completely digested.

I said 'as these things go it's not really that expensive, compared to Janes it's a steal at the full $150, but if you look around and wait till mid-year you can find it for less.'  And he told me something that I'll never forget, a fact that escapes us all because of our impression that everyone in Space has government money to burn... "companies like mine live so close to the red ink that even a couple hundred dollars can be a big decision." 

Well, if you're in a small group living on the faith of staying under the radar till you have your patent flying, and hoping just to make each payroll, here's your chance to save some of that precious money.  The Space Foundation just had it's annual meeting in Colorado where every attendee got a copy for free.  This means that very soon you might be seeing some on ebay from the big guys who never read anything and go to the shows becuase they are forced to go for good impressions.

Plus, if you can get a few of your budds to pool together you can get your own copy directly from the Space Foundation for half price but only till May 1st.  69 dollars spread between 5 people is doable and worth it.

Honestly, I don't have my copy yet (it is supposed to be in the mail right now) so I can't specifically vouch for this years issue BUT if it has half the overview and financials of the past few years then it it going to help anyone in the biz, anyone hoping to be in the biz, anyone wondering about investing in the biz or anyone just looking to see what is really going on in this very inside community.

If this is all new to you and you go googlebinging for for more info, remember that it's The Space Foundation, not the more-linked Space Frontier Foundation (Rick Tumlinson's Newspace group). I know, it's like that Monty Python Life Of Brian joke about the confusion between the Judea People's Front and the People's Front Of Judea :).

Hop to it: http://www.spacefoundation.org/store/space-report