New Mexico is gearing up for its attempt to become a major centre of the space tourism industry. The US state, which will soon host its first commercial rocket launch and rocket-racing competitions, has begun the design process for a major spaceport.
The 6070-hectare (15,000-acre) spaceport is expected to cost around $225 million. New Mexico has now named the design firms DMJM and AECOM to gather information on the type of infrastructure needed and how much launch business is likely. They will then design hangars, control and support buildings, roads, utilities, launch pads and fuel tanks. This phase should be completed by early 2007.
"It's not like building an airport where you pretty much know what the parameters and the specifications are," says Rick Homans, secretary of New Mexico's Economic Development Department. "This is really the first time this has ever been done – a purpose-built commercial spaceport for the new space industry."
The biggest expenses will come from the runways. Homans says they may start with one 3-kilometre (1.9-mile) runway with the option of adding a second if demand is high.
Given the interest by Virgin Galactic, the Rocket Racing League and others, Homans expects that the space tourism market will support both rocket planes and other horizontal launchers.
Virgin Galactic is designing a suborbital passenger spaceship based on SpaceShipOne, which was air-dropped from the horizontally launched White Knight aircraft (see Virgin Galactic announces its first 100 space tourists).
It is unclear, however, whether there will be enough of a vertical launch market with traditional point-at-the-sky rockets.
"Our rule from the beginning has been only move forward when there's a major customer knocking at the door," Homans says. "We have that now on the horizontal side. We don't have that yet on the vertical side."
For now, New Mexico has erected a temporary launch pad for its first customer. This summer, New Mexico hopes to host its inaugural commercial launch as UP Aerospace's rocket, Spaceloft XL, takes more than 40 school experiments on a suborbital jaunt into space.
If all goes to plan, the 6-metre-tall rocket will then land at the neighbouring White Sands Missile Range, where both the experiments and the launcher will be recovered. The rocket (pictured) was erected on the launch pad last week.
"We kind of know the eyes of the world will be upon us and we want to do it right," says Eric Knight, CEO of UP Aerospace in Unionville, Connecticut, US. If this first launch goes well, UP Aerospace plans two more launches for 2006.
Then between the 19 and 22 October 2006, New Mexico will host the X-Prize Cup. Some of the newest space planes and rockets will fly, including X-Racers that will fly a three-dimensional race course as part of the Rocket Racing League (see Rocket Racing League names its first team).
New Mexico hopes to have its Federal Aviation Administration license in early 2007. The state got a waiver from the FAA for the upcoming UP Aerospace launch because the rocket’s total impulse is less than 200,000 pound-seconds and the rocket motor will burn for less than 15 seconds.
Currently, six spaceports in the US are licensed by the FAA – Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, Mojave Airport and Spaceport in California, Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The FAA announced on Tuesday that Oklahoma has been granted a license for a spaceport at Clinton-Sherman Industrial Airpark, a former Air Force base which already has the long runway required for space flights.
Besides New Mexico, entrepreneurs are also planning to launch their new rockets and rocket planes from Texas and Oklahoma.
California's spaceport in Mojave has already been used for two trips to space by Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne, the winner of the X-Prize.
All comments should respect the New Scientist House Rules. If you think a particular comment breaks these rules then please use the "Report" link in that comment to report it to us.
If you are having a technical problem posting a comment, please contact technical support.
18:00 07 October 2008
17:56 07 October 2008
