Welcome to the Space Simulation Conference website. This will be our 25th conference in 42 years. The 1st Space Simulation Conference was held in September 1966 in Houston, Texas and our conference has occurred on an annual or biannual basis ever since. This year's theme is Environmental Testing: The Earth-Space Connection.

It is an exciting time to be making this connection. Spirit and Opportunity have had an amazing run on Mars; MESSENGER and New Horizons have been sent to our solar system's inner and outermost planets; our Sun is being explored like never before; great observatories like Chandra, Hubble and Spitzer are making incredible discoveries about our universe; powerful new observatories like James Webb are being developed; the International Space Station is being assembled at a record pace; commercial and defense space assets are more capable than ever; a Vision for Space Exploration to inhabit the Moon and journey to Mars is being pursued; and a fleet of spacecraft such as Aura, CALIPSO, CloudSat, GOES, ICESat and Terra are gathering information essential to life on Earth.

All this, and more, is made possible because of the contributions people like you make to the space industry everyday. The Space Simulation Conference is our connection with each other to share the great work we do with like-minded enablers of the space industry. Thank you for taking the time to contribute to the space program, to the advancement and preservation of mankind, and to the 25th Space Simulation Conference.

The 25th Space Simulation Conference is fortunate to have two excellent keynote speakers. Dr. Robert Gold is the Chief Technologist for the Space Department at the Applied Physics Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University. He will kick-off the technical program on Tuesday by discussing how MESSENGER's design challenges were met and show some of the extraordinary observations of the first two Mercury flybys. William Breeden III of Lockheed Martin Corporation will be our keynote speaker Thursday morning.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the enablers of the 25th Space Simulation Conference. Our Management and Technical Program Committees are the best a General Chair could hope for. I would like to thank Manfred Diehl for putting the technical program together, our past General Chairs Bob Tomkiewicz and Terry Fisher for all their support, Hadi Navid and Nabil Copty for organizing the tutorial program, John Hazen for keeping us within budget, Dave Cornog for keeping us on track, Andy Webb for coordinating the vendors, Dave Feick for arranging the social events, Hal Fox for designing and maintaining the SpaceSimCon.org website, Bill Wilkinson for lining up interesting guest speakers, Carmine Mattiello for publications, Roberta Burrows for IEST support, and Elie Choueiry, Randy Hedgeland, Brian Langmeyer, Bill Raynor, Andy Rose and Raj Singhal for being Session Chairs. There would be no conference without the support from these outstanding individuals!

Another key component to the success of the Space Simulation Conference is the support the vendor community provides. A broad range of vendors provide equipment and services critical to our mission success. This year we added a Virtual Expo to our website that highlights their products and capabilities. Please take a moment to explore the Virtual Expo link.

Last, but certainly not least, I want to thank XL Technology Systems, DynaVac and m+p International for their overwhelming generosity in sponsoring our Wednesday evening dinner-cruise aboard the Duchess of Pintail yacht. The Duchess of Pintail is Baltimore's newest luxury yacht. Amenities on board include a 1,500 sq. ft. main dining salon, granite topped bar, grand staircase, richly appointed lounge, full service galley, flying bridge, and four open air decks. XL is providing the catered appetizers and dinner, DynaVac is sponsoring the yacht rental and m+p International is sponsoring the beverage service. We are truly blessed to have such generous sponsorship for this amazing event.

The 25th Space Simulation Conference is shaping up to be an intellectually stimulating and socially rewarding event. The Management and Technical Committees are working hard to provide you with a program you won't want to miss.

Ed Packard
General Chair
06/04/08