Paving A New Path To Space

spacedaily.com ^ | 6/28/04 | Irene Klotz

[KevinDavis]

For 43 years, America has had a single port for launching people into space: Cape Canaveral, Fla., an undeveloped, dune-lined beach that noses into the Atlantic Ocean from the peninsula's east coast.

[KevinDavis]

I expect more spaceports to popup...

[KevinDavis]

Space Ping! This is the Space Ping List! Let me know if you want on or off this list!

[RightWhale]

While they aren't all rated for human spaceflight, there are several spaceports. Alaska has 2.

[KevinDavis]

My correction, more spacesports that can handle human space travel.

[Young Werther]

We know that the Mojave airport has been designated a spaceport and they're not alone. The 2004 ISDC was held in OK City and the Oklahoma Space Alliance has prepared OK City for just such a designation. There is no reason that the DFW are with Alliance Airport and plenty of "wide open spaces" couldn't also qualify.

Imagine if when a venture capitalist goes to Burt and says, "Build me a White Knight2 and SpaceShip2 with a passenger capacity of five!" Assuming a initial fee of 100K for 350Kft and one flight a week. That's $26 Million a year!

It's a start and Burt did say that his vision is focused on orbital and then Lunar adventures!

BTW in the June 21st issue of Aviation Week NASA is proposing a "prize" system to spur private enterprise investments.

"Aldridge's group, formally known as the President's Commission on Implementation of U.S. Space Exploration Policy, recommended prizes as large as $1 billion for placing humans on the surface of the Moon and sustaining them there for a given period. Based on a calculation that as much as $400 million in private funds have been spent on rocket technology to capture the $10-million X Prize, the panel saw prizes as a way to leverage limited government funds for space exploration technology and to broaden the pool of companies involved in space work.

Also recommended were tax breaks, regulatory relief, protection of intellectual property and reconsideration of international treaty language that might discourage commercial space ventures like lunar mining. The commission suggested study of an organization like the CIA's In-Q-Tel to seek valuable technology.

It's a start

[hattend]

Everything I touch is about business, said Witt, who sees the FAA commercial spaceport license as a formality more than anything. The license means that now I have to check for desert tortoises (before an operation) and if I find any, I have to have them relocated.

@#$&^(* Environmentalists...god forbid, don't find any fairy shrimp after a rain storm, they'll close the airport.

[KevinDavis]

and then watch our space industry leave this nation real fast..........

[Frank_Discussion]

Here's one:

http://www.gulfcoastspaceport.org/

[unibrowshift9b20]

And Vandenburg was supposed to have shuttle launches, but they never did.