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Old 06-30-2015, 10:21 AM
 
34,619 posts, read 21,698,425 times
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Houston to build spacecraft launching site at Ellington Airport | News - Home

Quote:
HOUSTON - The Houston Airport System (HAS) has been granted a Launch Site License from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that enables Ellington Airport (EFD) to establish itself as a launch site for Reusable Launch Vehicles (RLV), making it the 10th commercial spaceport in the United States.
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Old 06-30-2015, 10:23 AM
 
182 posts, read 351,445 times
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cool
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Old 06-30-2015, 10:45 AM
 
Location: League City
3,842 posts, read 8,292,136 times
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Would love to see this idea flourish
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Old 06-30-2015, 11:01 AM
 
18,155 posts, read 25,380,867 times
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What's the price tag? who's gonna pay for it?
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Old 06-30-2015, 11:24 AM
 
34,619 posts, read 21,698,425 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dopo View Post
What's the price tag? who's gonna pay for it?
Shhh. Open up your check book, it will all be over soon.

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Old 06-30-2015, 11:31 AM
 
Location: Non Extradition Country
2,165 posts, read 3,785,902 times
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I see an epic failure coming soon.
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Old 06-30-2015, 11:38 AM
 
34,619 posts, read 21,698,425 times
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Originally Posted by DSL_PWR View Post
I see an epic failure coming soon.
I wonder if you'll be able to see the rockets going up from Grand Texas Theme Park?
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Old 06-30-2015, 11:46 AM
 
Location: Non Extradition Country
2,165 posts, read 3,785,902 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PedroMartinez View Post
I wonder if you'll be able to see the rockets going up from Grand Texas Theme Park?
Sorry, make that 2 epic fails..
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Old 06-30-2015, 12:06 PM
 
860 posts, read 1,590,970 times
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Any guesses as to when Houston's fabulous spaceport will actually be in operation? Heck -- private companies still can't reliably launch a supply rocket to the space station!
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Old 06-30-2015, 01:15 PM
 
270 posts, read 407,646 times
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One thing to keep in mind is that "spaceport" in the context of this story is not some terminal being built where people are being launched into space (like Virgin Galactic is doing in New Mexico, courtesy of big tax breaks...).

It's an FAA license where commercial operators can potentially do things that you aren't allowed to do from your average airport. The thing I hear about for Ellington is a horizontally launched rocket dropped from an aircraft out over the gulf. Orbital Sciences has been doing this a long time with the Pegasus, which is a small rocket launched from an L-1011 (usually from Wallops in Virginia). Ellington is actually pretty well suited for this, there's a lot of land available for development, there's not commercial operations at the airport to mess with, the government has a strong presence there, and the proximity to a metro area loaded with engineers is seen as a plus.

Another publicly announced partnership is with Sierra Nevada, who would potentially land their DreamChaser vehicle at Ellington if they can keep themselves funded.

In any event, this announcement is more about opening up some options for commercial exploitation of the airport as it exists today by private companies than the city sinking in a lot of money for something out of the Jetsons (at least I hope so, a lot of public money has been thrown at "spaceports" around the country that IMHO has just gone down the toilet).
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