The San Diego Space Society (SD Space) is a chapter of the

National Space Society The National Space Society (NSS) is an American international nonprofit 501(c)(3) educational and scientific organization specializing in space advocacy. It is a member of the Independent Charities of America and an annual participant in the Comb ...

based in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United State ...

and founded in 2008. The group's goal is to raise awareness of the benefits of space exploration and San Diego's role in space development by promoting space education in local schools and events such as the San Diego Science Festival. SD Space organized the first

SpaceUp SpaceUp is an open-attendance space exploration unconference, where participants decide the topics, schedule, and structure of the event. SpaceUps have been held on both West and East coasts, and in Houston. Common features of SpaceUps are an unconf ...

, an

unconference An unconference is a participant-driven meeting. The term "unconference" has been applied, or self-applied, to a wide range of gatherings that try to avoid hierarchical aspects of a conventional conference, such as sponsored presentations and t ...

about space, at the

San Diego Air & Space Museum San Diego Air & Space Museum (SDASM, formerly the San Diego Aerospace Museum) is an aviation and space exploration museum in San Diego, California, United States. The museum is located in Balboa Park and is housed in the former Ford Building, ...

in 2010. The 2-day event was covered by Spacevidcast and attended by representatives from

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...

Google Lunar X Prize The Google Lunar XPRIZE (GLXP), sometimes referred to as Moon 2.0, was a 2007–2018 inducement prize space competition organized by the X Prize Foundation, and sponsored by Google. The challenge called for privately funded teams to be the ...

Masten Space Systems Masten Space Systems was an aerospace manufacturer startup company in Mojave, California (formerly in Santa Clara, California) that was developing a line of vertical takeoff, vertical landing (VTVL) rockets, initially for uncrewed research sub- ...

, and

Quicklaunch Quicklaunch is a currently inactive company attempting to use a type of space gun to launch payloads into low Earth orbit. It is a university spin-off of the SHARP project which ended 2005. Quicklauncher The Quicklaunch proposed firing apparatu ...

. SD Space operates the Space Travelers Emporium, a combination of

retail store Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

, and

clubhouse Clubhouse may refer to: Locations * The meetinghouse of: ** A club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal ** In the United States, a country club ** In the United Kingdom, a gentlemen's club * A ...

South Park, San Diego South Park is a neighborhood in San Diego, California adjacent to the southeast corner of Balboa Park. It stands out in San Diego for its tree-lined streets and walkable business district. Predominantly a single-family residence area with some s ...

. The Emporium plans to sell tickets for

sub-orbital spaceflight A sub-orbital spaceflight is a spaceflight in which the spacecraft reaches outer space, but its trajectory intersects the atmosphere or surface of the gravitating body from which it was launched, so that it will not complete one orbital re ...

through companies such as

Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic is an American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and his British Virgin Group retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investments Limited. It is headquartered in California, and operates from New Mexico. The compan ...

. To coincide with the 41st anniversary of the

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, ...

launch, the Emporium screened
Moon Beat
', a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...

by director Kevin Stirling told from the perspective of journalists who covered the U.S. Space Program at the time of the moon landing.

References

{{Reflist Space organizations Space advocacy organizations Scientific organizations established in 2008