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Spaceport Houston Developments


trymahjong

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This whole idea seems bizarre to me and also rather naive.  

 

I'm kinda surprised that the director of the Houston airport system is pushing this, though I doubt he has the gravitas and financial backing to make a credible go at it.  If instead, it were backed by a visionary tech billionaire, I would be more optimistic that at least a serious attempt would be made.  If just left up to the COH, I imagine it would be underfunded and ignored by anyone outside of Houston.  

 

Sorry to be negative, but I think this is the only realistic response.

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Houston works to stay in forefront of spaceflight

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/state/headlines/20140208-houston-works-to-stay-in-forefront-of-spaceflight.ece

"HOUSTON — With two corporations, SpaceX and Orbital Sciences, already delivering supplies to NASA’s International Space Station, a golden age may be at hand for private space firms.

Late this year, Virgin Galactic may launch its first suborbital flight, opening space to nonastronauts. And private companies are beginning to announce dates by which they’ll be ready to fly astronauts into orbit, a venture that until now has been solely the province of governments.

“We’re seeing a democratization of access to space,” Michael Lopez-Alegria, a four-time astronaut who now leads the industry group Commercial Spaceflight Federation, told the Houston Chronicle.

The rise of commercial space raises questions about the future of Houston as Space City, which for the entire history of U.S. spaceflight has been responsible for training and managing the flights of U.S. astronauts. Houston is racing to reinvent itself this decade as other parts of the country seek to chip away at its preeminence as the home of human spaceflight.

For now, Johnson Space Center will continue to be the home of NASA astronauts, but it’s not clear what role the center will have in working with astronauts who fly on privately built commercial vehicles to space.

NASA, for example, chose to establish its office overseeing the development of private spacecraft that will eventually carry U.S. astronauts to the space station at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, instead of at the Houston-based center.

The Houston region has not been oblivious to the rise of commercial space and its implications for the city’s traditional hegemony in human spaceflight.

“Houston is being very proactive,” said David Alexander, director of the Rice Space Institute.

Texas A&M recently held a commercial space workshop with Rice and industry partners to discuss a commercial space strategy for Houston and Texas. Universities, governments and industry partners will need to work together to ensure the vibrancy of Houston’s space presence, Alexander said.

The centerpiece of the region’s efforts is the development of a spaceport.

Last September, the Houston Airport System unveiled preliminary plans to develop a 450-acre spaceport at Ellington Airport. Houston aviation director Mario Diaz said he envisions a facility that would be home to space tourism as well as support aerospace hangars, manufacturing facilities, educational institutions and museums.

According to Darian Ward, a spokeswoman for the airport system, the city is about halfway through completing its application for an FAA license to operate the spaceport. The airport system expects to submit the license this summer and if all goes well could receive approval by the end of the year.

“The process is on time, and I believe that is significant,” Ward said.

Houston would be entering a competitive market. There are already more than a dozen government and private spaceports, with widely varying amounts of activity, in operation in the United States.

With a number of financial incentives, Spaceport America in New Mexico has secured a deal with Virgin Galactic to launch flights of SpaceShipTwo from there.

Despite a number of delays, the company’s founder, Richard Branson, has said commercial flights from the spaceport should begin as soon as the end of this year. The company has already presold more than 600 tickets at a cost of $200,000 each for flights to about 60 miles above the Earth, providing a spectacular view and a few minutes of weightlessness.

“Imagine doubling the number of people who have been in space in 50 years in a couple of years,” said Lopez-Alegria, the commercial spaceflight official. “That’s great, and I think that that will energize people.”

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I think Spacex is building its spaceport near Brownsville:

 

January 19, 2014

A January 18, 2014 story in the Brownsville Herald suggests that excitement is rising in that border community at the prospect of a commercial space port that SpaceX could build there. It seems that a SpaceX space port could change the nature of that community from a place where young people yearn to escape to one where people aspire to move to.

http://www.examiner.com/article/brownsville-looks-forward-to-spacex-space-port-with-keen-anticipation

 

 

 

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Ellington Airport's transition from air base to spaceport moved one small step closer to reality Thursday when one of the nation's most prominent private space companies joined the effort to study how it could land spaceships in the city where the nation's manned space program began.

 

The Sierra Nevada Corp., one of just four companies invited by NASA to work on ways to take people into low-Earth orbit, is developing a winged craft called the Dream Chaser that could one day make routine landings at Ellington under a multimillion-dollar renovation proposal the city approved last summer.

 

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/technology/article/Sierra-Nevada-to-partner-with-city-on-Ellington-5393759.php?cmpid=btfpm#/0

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I wonder if they could build a launch pad out on Bolivar or something since it's not heavily populated and launches could go directly out over the gulf? The spaceport idea is cool and nostalgic, but it won't have any launches. Only people landing and probably going on their merry way home.

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cloud713,

 

Most of the time they like to orbit eastbound as close to parallel to the equator as possible, to take advantage of the earth's rotation, so they would want to go straight east.  If they launched from Bolivar I wonder if it would go over populated land too soon after takeoff (Florida), which may not be ideal because of the possibility of launch failure.  That's why Brownsville is ideal because it's far enough south that an eastbound rocket wouldn't have to deviate far from east to avoid going over any populated areas.  Though perhaps Florida is far enough away that it's safe.

 

Ellington would, of course, be unacceptable for launches because there are plenty of people living just east of it.  Cape Canaveral and French Guiana have nothing to the east until reaching Africa, so both are perfect launch facilities.  Kazakhstan obviously isn't ideal for launches, for the above reasons plus it's too far north to take as much advantage from the earth's rotation, but I don't think the USSR really cared about hitting people with rocket parts (plus it's fairly sparsely populated anyway).

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I wonder if they could build a launch pad out on Bolivar or something since it's not heavily populated and launches could go directly out over the gulf? The spaceport idea is cool and nostalgic, but it won't have any launches. Only people landing and probably going on their merry way home.

 

There is a launch pad going in down near Brownsville. They already expect to launch over the Gulf (at least that's what the EIS said). Bolivar would be redundant.

 

When they make the launch vehicles capable of taking off horizontally, that will put Ellington in the game.

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  • 2 months later...

 

This morning, Mayor Annise Parker and the Houston Airport System announced that Ellington Airport will become a licensed commercial spaceport.

Houston is one of 10 selected sites nationwide that's been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration.

 

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wow i'm stoked! i love this city and so excited to see all the great things happening lately...and special thanks to this site and all the members that post all this great information and keep the excitement going! 

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This whole idea seems bizarre to me and also rather naive.  

 

I'm kinda surprised that the director of the Houston airport system is pushing this, though I doubt he has the gravitas and financial backing to make a credible go at it.  If instead, it were backed by a visionary tech billionaire, I would be more optimistic that at least a serious attempt would be made.  If just left up to the COH, I imagine it would be underfunded and ignored by anyone outside of Houston.  

 

Sorry to be negative, but I think this is the only realistic response.

Archfan: Don't look now, but we just were awarded a spaceport.

I realize you were probably talking about the actual building of this proposal, but never underestimate Houston.

Hopefully it will be built as proposed. You have to admit that are airports are pretty nice so why wouldn't they create just as nice a place for the future spaceport.

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I'm going to make a bold prediction here... when this thing is built (and we have flights leaving it that take a mere couple of hours to get to Europe or the middle east)... you'll see major oil giants leaving the energy corridor and Woodlands and flocking back Downtown. What self-respecting company will fly high priority business associates into Houston and then have them endure a car ride to a far flung suburb across town that takes almost as long as the flight itself?

Edited by brian0123
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Or maybe they'll start flocking to Pearland, south Houston, Clear Lake - the economics of lower land prices and plenty of empty space will still be there.  I could see the Energy corridor withering some though once the Spaceport...takes off

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