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Photo by Drew Hamilton
NASA displays its present and future with a mock-up of the Orion escape system and a hot air balloon shaped like a space shuttle at the Spaceport America groundbreaking event held at New Mexico State University June 18. Spaceport America will be a commercial spaceport with plans for it to support scientific missions as well as space tourism and transportation. |
Commercial space travel took another step forward June 19 with the New Mexico groundbreaking of the first commercial spaceport.
Spaceport America, which will be located near White Sands Missile Range, will be the first commercial spaceport to be built.
With plans to support both vertically and horizontally launched spacecraft, the new site will allow private companies to conduct space operations without the extensive support of government agencies. Though government organizations, including WSMR and NASA, are helping support the project, one of the most advertised goals of the project is to allow for commercial spacecraft to give private citizens access to space, a service not currently offered by most space agencies. Companies such as Virgin Galactic hope to offer space tourism flights, as well as suborbital passenger flights. “We are now very well on our way to becoming our own spaceline” said Virgin Galactic CEO Steven Attenborough at the groundbreaking event held at New Mexico State University.
More heavily emphasized at the event was what impact the opening of a spaceport will have on New Mexico’s economy and workforce. “The foundation of the spaceport, the reason we wanted to build it, is education,” said New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. Richardson hopes to see the spaceport staffed by New Mexicans, creating jobs for the surrounding communities. To help establish a locally generated workforce NMSU is establishing an aerospace engineering undergraduate program.
The groundbreaking event held at NMSU was primarily a community announcement, with Richardson, Attenborough, Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima, and New Mexico Spaceport Authority Chairwoman, Daniela Glick all speaking about the advantages the spaceport will provide to the region by creating jobs and attracting technology based businesses and organizations.
NASA used the event to promote community awareness of their activities in the area to prepare for America’s return to the moon.
They showcased the escape system mockup of their next generation of spacecraft, as well as models and images of all the components of the Ares family of rockets currently being developed.
They also had a hot air balloon of the soon to retire space shuttle. Plans are in place to test the escape system at WSMR with the launch site clearly visible from main post.
The launch date has yet to be set.
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