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Commercial Spaceport In Texas
Scothoser writes "CNN has this article on a rocket that was launched on a ranch site near Stockton, Texas. Their hope is that it will become a commercial launch site for anything, as long as it is legal. The major reason for this move is that using NASA launch sites are prohibitively expensive. This way someone can launch their home-made satellites for much less than approaching NASA. Now I am just waiting for the HOW-TO on a Linux-run micro-satellite!"
Is the launch site within 600 miles (range of Scud missle) of President Bush's ranch?
What wouldn't be legal? Its space, its like international waters. I didn't sign a treaty saying i wouldn't launch any space based weapons platforms. Who's gonna stop me if i wanna launch my weather control machine (evil laugh).
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
What if your private rocket has a malfunction and goes slamming into a major city, killing thousands? With space technology so new compared to all other forms of transportation, I'm guessing that it would be an insurance nightmare, I think, for any private individual or even single company to afford.
There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
I just made a space station last night for $125,000 while playing Sim City 3000.
Now if the aliens hadn't come and zapped it up in their flying saucers, I wouldn't have to rebuild it today.
*sigh* Being mayor is hard.
I do what the voices on my console tell me to do.
According to this article there is a spaceport in California that has been launching since the year 2000. Does anyone know anymore about it?
No NASA frills, no NASA gimmicks! Sign up now!
Wah!
Excellent! I hope they add a cantina. Also can't forget to renovate docking bay 94.
In addition, I hope they can keep those pesky jawas out. They shouldn't serve their kind there.
- - - - - - - -
Don't worry, being eaten by a crocodile is just like going to sleep in a giant blender.
There's also a spaceport in Oklahoma, and the state gives tax breaks for people who move their rocketry stuff there. Launch licenses are also somewhat easier to obtain. I happen to know John Carmack was considering doing some of his stuff there.
-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"This is an excellent idea. The government controlled [nasa] launch sites want a small fortune ($1mil+) to jetisson a can of coke into space. These private foundations can only cost a fraction of that.. and im sure more of these privately owned sites will spring forth around the globe pretty quickly. And as we all know only with competition can something really be accomplished. Nasa has proven that without due such all they can accomplish is launch dates in the 3000's. A round of applause to the people of Rancho de Stockton.
Props to Gene Lyda for letting them use the land free-of-charge!
"Want a certain someone to disappear? Call 1-800-ASTRONAUT - the perfect birthday or anniversary gift!"
They'd make millions.
But no way I'd get on a Linux based shuttle.
DIY Astronaut: "Houston, I'm running out of oxygen! Having trouble breathing. Why can't I get the air scrubbers to help make the air more breathable?"
Houston: "Patches are welcome."
No... it's
1. Launch Lance Bass into space
2. There is NOOOO Step 2
3. There is NOOOO Step 3
4. Celebrate
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
I had the pleasure of meeting John at the last Space Access Society meeting in Arizona and talking to him for several hours about high altitude photography from balloon and kite platforms.
---Mike
Carmack's Armadillo Aerospace (god, I'd love to go work for them :) tried to launch in Texas but couldn't get approval. They had to drive 6 hours to Oklahoma which is launch-friendly (if you give manufacturing preference to OK companies). There are many places that are offering alternative launch locations to NASA, but it's still tough to get approval.
Links: Armadillo Aerospace Log Entry and The Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority
Now I am just waiting for the HOW-TO on a Linux-run micro-satellite!
:
Amateur satellites are nothing new. Hams and AMSAT have been putting satellites up since the early 60's. Right now they have about 20 operational satellites in orbit. Linux based software is quite popular in the Ham community, and plays a big role in AMSAT operations. Satellite Software
The HOW-TO's
Davidoff, Martin, The Satellite Experimenter's
Handbook Newington, CT: The American
Radio Relay League, 1984.
Jansson, Richard, Spacecraft Technology Trends
in the Amateur Satellite Service, Ogden, UT:
Proceedings of the 1st Annual USU Conference
on Small Satellites, 1987.
It's stupid to put a space launch facility in Texas. Especially a commercial one.
If you launch from close to the equator, you get a much larger initial velocity, and it's free. Free! You can carry a larger payload or use less fuel with your rocket.
When the French started up Ariannespace, they put it French Guyanna, very close to the equator. Ariannespace has about half of the commerical satellite business.
Texas is a fine choice for a launch site, if for no other reason than Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama being immediately downrange. In the event there is some problem keeping the launch vehicle on course, I can't think of three more deserving states. :-)
Yay!
Sorry had to say it
--- I am known for the ones who want to find me on the net. Is that a privacy risk or a privilege? One might wonder..
To our loyal clients:
JP Aerospace is now requiring all manned launches to carry at least one ten-gallon cowboy hat per launch. In the rare event of a guidance system malfunction, the crewmember is required to straddle the rocket (see diagram 14) and wave said hat above his/her head while letting out a steady stream of whooping as the rocket falls back to earth.
Wrists killing you? Not in 2 weeks. Learn Dvorak.
When you launch a rocket, you have to be able to guarantee that in the event of a malfunction, the rocket will fall in a safe impact area. There are systems that predict the impact point based on the current position and velocity of the launch vehicle. If there is a danger that the current predicted impact point will move outside of the safe impact area, the range safety officer will send a command to the rocket to activate the flight termination system. The flight termination system terminates powered flight by using linear shaped charges to open up fuel/oxidizer tanks and solid rocket motor cases. This guarantees that the rocket, or the pieces of the rocket, will follow a ballistic trajectory and land in the safe impact area.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
Like most people you are forgetting that insurance is one of the few industries run entirely on logic and mathematics -- their actuaries calculate the risk and the cost and multiple it out to get your premium.
...
.
... corporate politics takes its toll here as well.
actually, not quite exact: I met a man whose sole livelihood depends on insurance companies NOT familiar with the law of large numbers
to explain: his company is a middleman between the large insurance companies and single insurance agents.
Now, this company's sole service is being a medium-scale repository of agents for the large companies, and for this they take 10% commision.
Why do the agents do this ? because the large companies treat every account as a profit-making unit, so even if the single agent is very succesful, just one large insurance claim causes him to be unprofitable some fiscal year (or several years), which means this agent will be out of a job. For the medium-sized company, however, fluctuations are much smaller, hence they have little risk, they are almost allways a "profitable unit"
This causes the absurd situation that large insurance companies lose 10% of gross-profit (more for real profit) because they ignore the law of large numbers !!
now, I asked this man wether they didn't know the absurdity of this, and he said of course they did, but they needed to justify every account to the board as profitable, so they did not try to change it.
And the morals of the story: like every industry, the insurance industry is not allways run solely on math and logic
Working for necessity's mother.