The Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) has named Rear Admiral Craig Steidle (Ret.) as President, beginning May 15. Steidle was appointed to the position by a unanimous vote of the organization's board of directors and will serve full-time.  

Steidle has a long resume, having served as a former senior NASA official, flag officer, program manager, aerospace engineer, Navy pilot and combat veteran, and technology innovator. Currently a distinguished visiting professor at the U.S. Naval Academy and a consultant to the Department of Defense, Steidle served as the first Associate Administrator for Exploration Systems at NASA.

During his tenure at NASA, Steidle built the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate into a $3 billion a year organization, starting efforts to foster commercial space transportation to the International Space Station (ISS) and the Centennial Challenges prize program. In the Navy, Steidle served as director of the Joint Strike Fighter Program and implemented the "fly-off" competition between Boeing (News - Alert) and Lockheed-Martin prototype aircraft. He also commanded the Navy's F/A-18 Program. Early in his career, he flew carrier night combat missions during the Vietnam War and has served as a test pilot and test pilot instructor.

Steidle succeeds current CSF president Bretton Alexander, who has served since December 2006. Over the past four years, membership in the organization has grown from under 10 companies to over 40.  

CSF is changing leadership during a boom in commercial spaceflight activity. Numerous private ventures are building suborbital systems for researchers and space tourists. This year, SpaceX (News - Alert) and Orbital will demonstrate commercial resupply to the ISS for NASA under its COTS program and SpaceX is gearing up for regular cargo delivery and "downmass" return for ISS. A number of companies are working to provide commercial trips to low earth orbit launched from the U.S. for transportation of people to the ISS -- and ultimately to commercial space stations, such as a Bigelow Aerospace facility scheduled to be launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in 2014.

It's all good, but CSF will also have to keep a weather eye on NASA's budget to make sure funding continues for continued commercial space efforts. Steidle may also face the prospect of future conflicts between two of its members, upstart SpaceX and the United Launch Alliance (ULA).   SpaceX is offering its Falcon Heavy rocket as a lower cost option to ULA's current monopoly on U.S. government flights with the Atlas and Delta rockets. SpaceX believes it will be able to secure up to 10 Falcon Heavy launches a year down the road, and some that business will come directly out of the pocket of ULA.