Rick Tumlinson

Called one of the world's top space Visionaries, Rick Tumlinson is one of the founders of the commercial space movement now headlined by people like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson. He led the team that took over the Mir Space Station as the world's first commercial space facility, signed up Dennis Tito as the first space "tourist", was a founding Trustee of the XPrize and has been called 6 times to testify on national space policy in front of Congress.

A published author, dynamic speaker, leading authority on human space policy, and founder of Orbital Outfitters, the world's first commercial spacesuit company, he is also founder of the EarthLight Institute and the Texas Space Alliance, and co-founder of the 24 year old Space Frontier Foundation.

Mr. Tumlinson's keynotes help audiences inject their inner sense of adventure and invention into their work, lives and community. Inspiring and motivating, Mr. Tumlinson takes you on a ride from the beginnings of our endeavours to reach space, to todays space revolution and into the his amazing vision of the future.

Rick says, "We are no more alive than when we are on the edge." Be it a first time rocket launch, the first kiss or a new direction for society, he makes the point that frontiers of all sorts are what we need to thrive and grow.

A highly sought after speaker in space circles, he is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and the space industry paper Space News. Tumlinson's writings and quotes have appeared on the front page of the New York Times, and in the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Houston Chronicle, Washington Post and other publications around the world, from The Economist to China's People's Daily. Tumlinson has been featured in several issues of Popular Science, in Time Magazine, Reader's Digest and other magazines.

Rick has appeared frequently on CNN and most recently Fox News, also television programs such as ABC's World News Tonight, the CBS Morning Show, the CBS Evening News and on TV sets from Russia to China's CCTV and the BBC.

In 2004, Tumlinson was one of 20 White House guests invited to hear President George W. Bush announce his plans to return to the Moon and explore Mars. He helped lay the framework for NASA's Lunar Exploration Analysis Group and edited a book entitled Return to the Moon, a collection of papers by leading space experts on Lunar settlement and development. He is currently editing a book on asteroids and forming a new asteroid mining company.

In 2004, Space News magazine listed Tumlinson as one of the 100 most influential people in the space industry, stating: "Part agitator, part operator, Tumlinson has spent the past two decades advocating human exploration and settlement of the solar system and has been a strong advocate of creating commercial opportunities at the Russian Mir space station and at the international space station."