Also in this week’s issue of The Space Review, Taylor Dinerman examines the number of commercial spaceports that have been proposed or are under development. Much of his essay is a contract between New Mexico, which is committing over $100 million to build a spaceport, and California, which has largely ignored space tourism and related markets, despite the pioneering role played by Mojave Airport. Why are the two states going in opposite directions?
…possibly because the New Mexico state government is not as politically polarized as California’s. Also, New Mexico is a poorer state and is ready to make a real effort to capitalize on every single one of its assets. California has an abundance of resources and if it ends up losing the space tourism industry to New Mexico it will be just one of many that it has lost in the last twenty years.
Interesting follow up on UP Aerospace’s launch from Spaceport America on April 28: Seems that at the last minute, the new Spaceport Director, Rick Homans (formally the NM Secretary of Economic Development)got a little nervous about the launch and decided to move the aim point 5 miles to the west (because safety is number one). Jerry Larson, President of UP Aerospace, was against the move but was told to either move it or don’t launch. As a result, the payload is now in the mountains west of the range and has yet to be recovered (almost two weeks later). The place where they think it came down is less than two miles from flat open land – Thanks a lot Rick. Next time just shut up and color and let technical people make the technical decisions, you moron! Yet another reason why we have to get spaceflight out of the hands of beaurocrats.