Spaceport America (NM) Officially Opens

[venture]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...=feeds-newsxml

Not a lot of coverage in the US media bout it, but Branson's dream of space flight keeps getting closer. The $209M terminal was finished and officially opened yesterday. They are planning on the first commercial spaceflights to start at the end of next year.

Report mentioned over 450 tickets sold so far at $200K a pop on Virgin Galactic. So based on tickets sold, that fills at least 75 flights.

So far I believe they had one mother ship done (VMS Eve) that will carry the passenger vehicle up to around 50,000 feet. As far as the passenger vehicles go I think VSS Enterprise is the only one that is actually finished and being used for tests. VSS Voyager hasn't made any flights yet from what I've read. The second mother ship will be named VMS Spirit of Steve Fossett.

Hopefully this will continue to push us on the path to a full commercial space transportation system - at least before most of us are pushing up daisies. LOL

Terminal & Hangar:


VMS Eve carrying VSS Enterprise

[SoonerBeerMan]

This is so cool!! New Mexico is really setting up to become a focal point in commercial space travel. Our director here at CAMI at the FAA recently went out there. I hope to go out there myself at some point as it seems the FAA is laying the ground work for better cooperation with the commercial space companies.

[MDot]

That is awesome! New Mexico is the type of place to have this at.

[Thunder]

I think its too expensive and does not really allow a lot of us the opportunity to go into space. If they just be smart by charging less within our budget, then they'd make a lot more money. How long are the passengers going to stay in space? Its about time that someone designed spaceships to go up into space rather than NASA's old fashioned straight into the air powered by explosive fires. The new spaceship fleet will quickly evolve into those spaceships that we see on Star Trek.

[jn1780]

I think its too expensive and does not really allow a lot of us the opportunity to go into space. If they just be smart by charging less within our budget, then they'd make a lot more money. .

Supply and demand. Their not going to lower the price when they have not even had their first set of flights. 90 million for 450 tickets is not bad at all. Plus, I'm sure going into "space" is not cheap.

How long are the passengers going to stay in space?

Not long at all. Think Alan Shepard's first flight which was a suborbital flight that lasted about 15 minutes. Their pretty much up there long enough to enjoy a few minutes of weightlessness and enjoy the high altitude views.

Its about time that someone designed spaceships to go up into space rather than NASA's old fashioned straight into the air powered by explosive fires. The new spaceship fleet will quickly evolve into those spaceships that we see on Star Trek.

Yeah, this is nowhere near Star Trek ships. Their not even achieving orbit. There are some other private companies that are developing "low" cost alternatives for achieving Earth orbit. They still use rocket power though.

[bluedogok]

This is so cool!! New Mexico is really setting up to become a focal point in commercial space travel. Our director here at CAMI at the FAA recently went out there. I hope to go out there myself at some point as it seems the FAA is laying the ground work for better cooperation with the commercial space companies.

//threadjack
Did they ever start the renovation project at the CAMI building?

[Thunder]

jn1780, its a start. What we got now, we can only go forward from here. They will keep making it better and better. Eventually to a point of higher into space and longer exploration. Something that NASA will never be able to do.

[SoonerBeerMan]

//threadjack
Did they ever start the renovation project at the CAMI building?

They did. I think it took about 5 years to complete, which was longer than expected, and they went over budget...but hey, it's the government, want do you expect?? They finished up the main entryway about a month ago. It is a pretty horrible design. And that's not just my opinion, but everyone else that I've talked to about it is less than enthusiastic about it.

Did you use to work out here?

[bluedogok]

No, I worked on the original space and phasing plans for the CAMI project....along with a 160 slide PowerPoint presentation on the phasing of the project. We had "other ideas" that we felt would do the project quicker and cheaper and address the need for more office space out there but the FAA didn't want to hear it as they had made up their minds prior to us getting involved, so a complete remodel was what they ordered. I doubt that they even came close to our preliminary design as well, I don't know who actually did the project after we completed the preliminary study.

[Plutonic Panda]

Now we need a spaceport here!!

[ljbab728]

Now we need a spaceport here!!

Have you checked out the top of the Devon Tower?

[jedicurt]

Now we need a spaceport here!!

we have one... it's just not used by any company after Rocketplane, inc went out of business... it's at Burns Flat

[Spartan]

Now we need a spaceport here!!

This absolutely has to be tongue in cheek

[Plutonic Panda]

Have you checked out the top of the Devon Tower?

Hey come to think of it, the whole thing might be giant rocket ship waiting for the right moment to blast off into space with all of it's employees and harvest a gas giant like Jupiter. lol

[Snowman]

Now we need a spaceport here!!

There is one around 90 miles west of OKC

[Plutonic Panda]

Well, I will definitely have to check that out then. Thanks for the info.

[bombermwc]

It's already an opportunity lost....we fizzled out with Burns Flat, and then Rocketplane went under as well. I'm pretty sure our spaceport days are gone.

[jedicurt]

It's already an opportunity lost....we fizzled out with Burns Flat, and then Rocketplane went under as well. I'm pretty sure our spaceport days are gone.

the one thing we have is we do have the FAA flight path, for if any company wants to go to Burns Flat... but i really don't see that happening. Last i had heard involving Burns Flat was that it was being used for UAV testing by several small companies. not sure how all of that turned out as it has been about 2 years since i knew someone who was working out there

[Plutonic Panda]

I found this on the Oklahoma today about the Burns Flat spaceport.

Oklahoma spaceport's blighted buildings rile town officials in Burns Flat | NewsOK.com

[Snowman]

It more likely would have just been the launch, preparation and/or testing facilities. Unfortunately for them it is more expensive to launch the further you get to the equator

[ljbab728]

I can't imagine Burns Flat ever being a logical place to attract hundreds of highly qualified scientists. What a horrible i̶d̶e̶a̶ location.

Funny, I would think the same thing about White Sands, NM. You find highly qualified scientests in ungodly places all over the world.

[Snowman]

While a state may want rocket test or launch facilities, for safety and nuisance issues it does need to be at least some distance from heavily populated areas. I would take the engineering jobs much sooner than the launch/prep facilities.

[venture]

It more likely would have just been the launch, preparation and/or testing facilities. Unfortunately for them it is more expensive to launch the further you get to the equator

Well you have to look at the type of launching that would (maybe still will) take place at Burns Flatt. All activity that was planned for was for horizontal/traditional runway launching not vertical rocket launching. Essentially the traffic would be much the same that is launched from Spaceport American in New Mexico. Also of note is that Burns Flat is not much further north than the NM facility...so that rules out the equator issue.

[ljbab728]

True. But It seems there is a tad more in White Sands and has been for a long time. I could be wrong though.

Sid, my point is that at one time there was nothing at White Sands. Scientests were drawn there because of the work and certainly not because of the location.

[Snowman]

Yeah, I understand what you are saying. I'm just not sure the job market acts the same way. Not only are there more opportunities(?) but it seems the work force is more focused on quality of life issues.

Yea but till about ten years ago where all these types of jobs went were more of a political matter than a normal job market. Now it is just vast the majority are a political matter and while the rest have some political influences are more flexible.