| By Gjermund E. Jansen, www.bitsofnews.com,
on 22-10-2006
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Favoured : 126 |
 For those of us who are sci-fi freaks, the images of spaceships hovering over ground or spaceships docking to spaceports are all too familiar. Sci-fi series like Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica has made the concept and reality of space more comprehend able through fiction.
Well, now, according to Space.com, it seems as if some of this fiction is about to become a reality;
Work is underway to design and construct the first “purpose-built” spaceport to handle passenger and payload launches to the edge of space and into Earth orbit.
New Mexico’s Spaceport America is seen as one gateway in a community of gateways built not only in the United States but globally. Suborbital craft that jump point-to-point between spaceports could be a blossoming enterprise to support vacation travellers, as well as a host of other businesses.
But before such visionary operations start, there are challenges to deal with before the planet is dotted with spaceports. Appropriate regulations will be required to govern the development of these facilities for one. Much work is ahead in operating and maintaining vehicles that will fly from these gateways to space.
The Spaceport logoThe plan is to break ground in late 2007 and the whole Spaceport America project is estimated to a total of about $225 million Rick Homans, Cabinet Secretary, New Mexico Economic Development Department and Chairman of Spaceport America, said, giving a progress report.
“By 2010 we expect to be launching Virgin Galactic on regularly scheduled flights to space from New Mexico at one or two times a week,” he continued.
When ready, Spaceport America will be able to handle everything from cargo and passenger flights to missions into space meaning that the spaceport would be suited to fit the needs of both horizontal and vertical take off and landing vehicles.
“It’s a complex undertaking,” John O’Connor, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, DMJM Aviation, says,“What we’re talking about with the spaceport is the democratization of space travel,” he concluded. Source Link: http://www.bitsofnews.com/content/view/4238/44/ Submitted by Zipper Talk about this article on our forum: http://galacticabbs.com/index.php?showtopic=468
Last update : 22-10-2006
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