T H E - E I G H T I E S

In mid-1985, an internal shake-up within the Sydney chapter meant that several of the primary officers left the group and the Society (in Sydney at least) faced collapse- Fortunately, a recently joined member, Kirby Ikin, took up the challenge of leading the Sydney chapter, being elected as its President in late 1985. With the responsibility of publishing the national newsletter and for keeping the communications lines operating with the other chapters, Kirby forged strong links with Noel Jackson in Brisbane and Jane Brooks in Adelaide. These three chapter leaders began rebuilding the Society, setting new goals, with renewed vision and enthusiasm. In January 1986, apparent disaster struck with the destruction of the space shuttle Challenger, and the Society faced a difficult period of reconstruction during a time when the public's focus was squarely on the pro's and con's of space flight and exploration, and questioning the need and wisdom of manned exploration.

In hindsight, the following two years actually worked in favour of the Society, as many space enthusiasts came out of the 'woodwork' to join the various state chapters. This increase in interest allowed the Society to find new direction, and with the support of several pro-active members, the chapters began developing more aggressive 'public outreach events'. Many of these events helped to attract new members to the Society, and several turned out to be enthusiastic enough to volunteer their time and talents to help develop the Society even further.

In October 1987, the Sydney chapter elected Glen Nagle (who had only joined the month before) as chapter Secretary and Michael Graf as chapter Treasurer, re-electing Kirby Ikin as President. Along with a few other members, a chapter 'Steering Committee' was formed to give the Sydney chapter new emphasis and for national activities such as the newsletter, new purpose.

It was at this time that the National Space Institute and the L5 Society in the United States were beginning their merger. Two names were being considered for the new Organisation, and were to be voted upon by the membership. The 'National Space Society' and the 'Space Frontier Society' were the choices up for consideration, and from all indications that the Australian chapters of the L5 Society were receiving, the name 'Space Frontier Society' was going to be chosen. In advance of this decision, the three existing chapters of the L5 Society made the name change to 'Space Frontier Society' (ie: Sydney Space Frontier Society, Adelaide Space Frontier Society, & Queensland Space Frontier Society). However, as events turned out, the name 'National Space Society' was chosen instead. By the time the results of the vote came out though, the new Australian chapter names were well in place, and it was considered inappropriate (at that time) to change to the National Space Society, as the name (from the Australian perspective) didn't reflect the 'international' nature of the new Organisation.

The choice of National Space Society was made by the majority of the then 20,000 members of the newly merged Organisation, and met with the same questions about its suitability for an international group. However, the choice of NSS was made over the name' lnternational Space Society' because of U.S. taxation laws, where a non-profit Organisation with tax deductable status cannot be an "international" Organisation for auditing purposes.

The name National Space Society stuck, and for a time did cause confusion for new members and the public when we tried to explain that although our parent organisation was called National Space Society, we were in fact part of an 'international' society, but at the same time our chapters were called 'Space Frontier Societies' (SFS). As the Society in Australia developed and our chapter membership numbers grew, the need became apparent for a greater national structure to be developed to coordinate the many activities of the Society. To this end, following discussion with all chapters, it was decided in late 1989 to create the National Space Society of Australia which could act as an umbrella Organisation under which all chapters could operate, providing a single identity for them to be recognised by, and through which resources, finances and administration could be pooled for the better operation of all chapters. The change to the National Space Society of Australia (NSSA), while linking us to our parent Organisation, helped to further strengthen our own independent, self-governed identity in Australia, and allowing the SFS chapters to continue activities under their own names, and using the NSSA banner when and where it was more appropriate to show a national front.

As an independent body from the US, the NSSA now began setting its own direct pro-space goals, that while particular to Australian needs and conditions, ran in parallel to the overall NSS goal of 'creating a spacefaring civilisation'.

As the NSSA grew, new chapters in Canberra, Perth, Western Sydney, Newcastle, and Melbourne were established over the next two years. All chapters continued to develop their own individual styles and 'outreach' programs, while setting up good interal links and communication lines with the other chapters and the national body. By early 1990, the planning for the establishment of the NSSA was sufficiently well advanced that it began considering the benefits of a more formal structure and developing ideas for organising its own Australian space conference. A Board of Directors was formed with representatives drawn from each of the chapters, and this Board was tasked with developing the NSSA, increasing membership services and expanding activities.

In the United States, the NSS had been continuing the series of International Space Development Conferences (ISDC) that had been run by the NSI since 1982. These conferences were designed to bring together delegates from nations around the world to discuss the future of the international space community. As a forum for developing a greater understanding of the issues required to develop the space frontier, the ISDC's have grown into a major international event on the space calendar.

Through connections that had been developed by Kirby Ikin in his work for the space insurance market, the plans for holding an Australlan Space Development Conference began to take shape. The Australian conference was designed to be a forum for domestic companies to come together to learn more about the many issues facing the local space industry, and to hear from other Australian and international companies working in the same market, developing new contacts, and expressing their concerns to representatives of the Australian Space Office and Government. The conference was also to be an event to promote space development and Australian space activities to the general public and Australian media.

To help attract that public and media attention, it was planned to have a major personality from the space community attend as our special guest. Already a vocal supporter of the activities of the NSS and a member of its Board of Governors (later to become Chairman of the NSS Board of Directors), Apollo XI astronaut-, Buzz Aldrin accepted our offer to come to Australia for the 1990 conference.

For the NSSA to be able to effectively run the Australian conference, it was realised that to raise sufficient financial support and to be taken seriously as a pro-space organisation, that we would have to cease being known as only an 'amateur' group and make the move towards becoming a registered company.

The Board of Directors began laying the groundwork for the establishment of the NSSA as a company, and with the assistance of several members who worked in the legal field, the Chapters were formed into the National Space Society of Australia Limited on the February 23rd, 1990.