Both a rebel and a respected leader, Rick is listed as one of the top 100 influential people in the space field. Called one of the world’s top space “visionaries,” he coined the term "NewSpace" and is credited with helping create the new commercial space industry highlighted by Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. A leading writer, speaker, and six-time Congressional witness, Rick helped start the first mission to find water on the Moon, signed the first ever commercial data purchase agreement with NASA, helped start NASA’s Lunar Exploration Analysis Group, led the commercial takeover of the Russian Mir space station, signed the first private astronaut to fly to the space station, co-founded the Space Frontier Foundation, and was a founding board member of the X-Prize. As a result of his world-changing work, in 2015 he won the World Technology Award along with Craig Venter of the Human Genome project. He founded the SpaceFund venture capital company with over 20 space companies in his portfolio and is a member of the US Space Force Doctrine Advisory Group. He hosts the New Worlds Conference and the legendary Space Cowboy Ball in Austin, Texas, and his non-profit EarthLight Foundation is creating an inclusive movement to use space to protect the Earth and expand life into the cosmos. Starting by founding the New York City L-5 Society in the 1980s aboard the aircraft carrier Intrepid, Rick also helped launch the Sci Fi channel, and produced the fundraising videos to kick-start the International Space University - becoming the first and only outside media producer to ever shoot on the set of a Star Trek series (Star Trek Next Generation). Around the same time, he produced the first ever pro-space radio public service announcement for the National Space Society. Meanwhile, as he became known for his fiery OpEds attacking the “aerospace industrial complex” in the magazine Space News and for whipping up space activists with his speeches and lectures, Rick led the effort to end the space shuttle program and replace it with private space fleets - a battle he and his colleagues eventually won. He helped create the first ever roadmap to develop private orbital space stations, and held the first Return to the Moon conferences starting in 1999. So disruptive to the space status quo was his work that his Space Frontier Foundation was featured in an early Dan Brown novel “Deception Point” as a radical group of pro-private sector revolutionaries trying to overthrow NASA’s domination of space. As the co-Founder of the $25M Foundation for the International Non-Government Development of Space endowment (FINDS) he awarded the first $100k to start the Mars Society, the first asteroid processing studies, solar sail and laser launch studies and many other important non-government space research programs in the late 1990s. In Texas, he convened the first ever meeting of private space companies with then governor Steve Perry, led the successful effort to have Texas declare Matagorda Island as a state heritage site as the location of the world’s first ever commercial rocket launch, and helped pass the first state legislation to insure private space travelers and protect carriers - that led to the current flights of Blue Origin commercial rocketships in West Texas. He helped start one of the first private lunar exploration companies and the asteroid mining company Deep Space Industries - and while neither succeeded long-term, they are recognized as having paved the way for a new generation of space resource laws, policies and companies, such as those participating in the NASA Artemis Moon missions. He also edited Return to the Moon in 2004, a collection of essays about the “right way” for humanity to go back to the Moon - a battle he is still fighting today. Live on iRoc Space Radio: https://www.irocspaceradio.com/the-space-revolution LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ricktumlinson Twitter: https://twitter.com/RocketRick Website: https://ricktumlinson.com EarthLight is about creating a new human paradigm based on the "Principles of Purpose" wherein a new generation of humanity saves the Earth and carries the seeds of life to places "unseen, untouched and unexplored." https://earthlightfoundation.org/ My latest TEDX in Manhattan (Waterstreet). I must admit, I decided last minute to freestyle... TED hates that! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq6GYJsbfCU A touching documentary in which I and others help tell the story of our Mentor and the Father of the Space Revolution - Dr. Gerard K. O'Neill. https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/the-high-frontier/umc.cmc.3kpk99nuyno3xxavnr6hnj5ij The tale of how some friends and I took over the Russian Mir Space Station for a few months - that led to the first private space traveler and more... https://www.orphansofapollo.com/ I wrote and produced this on the set of Star Trek Next Generation with Marina Sirtis (Commander Troy) back in 1992! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCDWcEmUEyg A video I created for the legendary defence department DC-X vertical take off and landing rocket program in the 1990's that was the precursor of SpaceX and Blue Origin's spaceships. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWidwDMqchc A piece I wrote on the July 20 anniversary of Apollo 11 about public misperceptions of the new wave of humans flying to space. https://www.space.com/apollo-11-space-tourism-2022