Posted on 04/03/2006 5:51:10 PM PDT by KevinDavis
It is not uncommon for foreign dignitaries to visit Congress or even give an address there. Less common, but certainly not unheard of, are ceremonies for foreign visitors in state legislatures. Still, it was a bit unusual to hear that Japanese officials were recognized on the floor of the Oklahoma State Senate in February. What drew a pair of distinguished Japanese officials to Oklahoma City?
The two, Ryojiro Akiba and Kenichi Ito, were recognized for signing up as the first commercial microgravity research users of the state’s spaceport, which will host flights by Rocketplane Ltd. as early as next year. (To perhaps help illustrate that there are other ties between Oklahoma and Japan, the citation was presented by state senator Randy Bass, a former professional baseball player who spent much of his career in Japan.) What brought the Japanese together with Rocketplane was a desire to provide new research opportunities and to help open the door to space commercialization in Japan—not to mention a little bit of luck.
(Excerpt) Read more at thespacereview.com ...
that "spaceport" is actually going to go operational?
From what I understand yes...
In the UK.. Bristol SpacePlanes SpaceTourists.com, since 1991, promoting space tourism.
Rocketplane’s long-term plans for cooperation with HASTIC
include flights of their XP vehicle from a future spaceport in
Hokkaido. (credit: Rocketplane Ltd.)
I'd like to believe it.
I will, however, when I see it.
whatever happened to the data cull from the Delta Clipper project?
There is a glut of transportation to outer space. Nobody is going to invest in space development with that Treaty gumming up the works.
> Nobody is going to invest in space development with that Treaty gumming up the works.
Really? Nobody? Including me? All all the tens of thousands of shares I own in Rocketplane and XCOR?
That's not space development. Asteroid mining is real space development. Even moon mining is real space development, although I don't see that particular one paying back the investment anytime soon.
Good question, sold on the black market perhaps. The Chinese if I had to bet.;-)
Here's a link or 2 .. it never got the funding needed, had a $5 B development cost, in the end the guvt said ,, see ya!..
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/x-33/dc-xa.htm
http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/dcy.htm
thanks
please check this proposal out:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1608646/posts?page=17#17
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.