Bellevue Company Proposes Asteroid Mining: Watch the Press Conference

Update 8:30 p.m.:

Planetary Resources' public relations says that an archive of the press conference will be available at Spacevidcast.com. This story will be updated when that video becomes available. In the meantime, we have .

Original story:

A Bellevue company proposes asteroid mining as a way "to expand earth's resource base."

You can watch Planetary Resources' live press conference at the Museum of Flight in Seattle in the above U-Stream video starting at 10:30 a.m. today, April 24. You also can watch on its website at www.spacevidcast.com/live 

According to its press release, Planetary Resources involves ex-NASA and ex-Microsoft employees, as well as a star-studded slate of investors and advisors, including Google's Larry Page and Eric Schmidt, filmmaker James Cameron and Microsoft's former Chief Software Architect Charles Simonyi, who has traveled to space as a tourist aboard Russian Soyuz crafts.

The group planned to "unveil a new space venture with a mission to help ensure humanity's prosperity," according to its press release.

Among the people involved in the project are: Peter H. Diamandis, M.D.; leading commercial space entrepreneur Eric Anderson; former NASA Mars mission manager Chris Lewicki; and planetary scientist & veteran NASA astronaut Tom Jones, Ph.D., according to a press release.

According to a press release from Planetary Resources:

Supported by an impressive investor and advisor group, including Google's Larry Page & Eric Schmidt, Ph.D.; film maker & explorer James Cameron; Chairman of Intentional Software Corporation and Microsoft's former Chief Software Architect Charles Simonyi, Ph.D.; Founder of Sherpalo and Google Board of Directors founding member K. Ram Shriram;and Chairman of Hillwood and The Perot Group Ross Perot, Jr., the company will overlay two critical sectors - space exploration and natural resources - to add trillions of dollars to the global GDP. This innovative start-up will create a new industry and a new definition of 'natural resources'.

Different media have been reporting the location for this company as Seattle and Bellevue. The company has been registered as a corporation in Bellevue, according to the Washington Secretary of State's Office, and also uses a Seattle address according to its website.