Is Texas forfeiting the private space race?

Houston Chronicle ^ | Updated 11:46 p.m., Sunday, May 6, 2012 | Eric Berger

[Olog-hai]

Later this month, a U.S. company plans to make the first private spaceflight to the International Space Station.

Much of the space community views the launch by SpaceX as a watershed moment—the opening of the heavens to private industry, and a glimpse of the public-private nature of future spaceflight.

The launch also comes as Texas' future in space is increasingly tenuous, with Johnson Space Center's role unclear amid a NASA that won't have its own functional rocket for at least a decade.

That's why some Texas space officials are enticed by SpaceX's consideration of building a spaceport in Texas.

"The state of Texas ought to be on it like a duck on a June bug," said Tom Moser, a former NASA space station program director who led an effort to build a Texas spaceport in the 1990s.

But is the state? Apparently not.

In April, SpaceX filed its intent to prepare an environmental impact statement for a proposed launch site in Cameron County, about 3 miles north of the Mexican border on the Gulf Coast. According to the company, the site's operations would consist of up to 12 launches per year. … Were SpaceX to build the spaceport, it would give Texas a toehold in the launch business and bolster its future in the changing spaceflight business. …

"We are pretty interested in the possibility of Texas and building a spaceport there," said Elon Musk, founder and chief executive of SpaceX.

However, Musk says that interest has yet to be reciprocated by Texas officials.

"There's been a lot of good action by the authorities in the Brownsville area; there's not been that much at the state level, and we'd certainly appreciate more from the state level," Musk said. …

[Regulator]

It’s a good move on the part of SpaceX to convince people like Kay Hutchison not to destroy the COTs budget.

[snowsislander]

... amid a NASA that won't have its own functional rocket for at least a decade.

The Kenyan dog-eater has succeeded in destroying our space program.