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Commercial Spaceport In Texas

Posted by timothy on from the a-big-damn-big-super-big-big-big-place dept.

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!"

19 of 194 comments (clear)

  1. Applications for launch from overseas? by RichMan · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is the launch site within 600 miles (range of Scud missle) of President Bush's ranch?

    1. Re:Applications for launch from overseas? by Syncdata · · Score: 5, Funny

      Is the launch site within 600 miles (range of Scud missle) of President Bush's ranch?
      I'd just like to take this opportunity to say hello to the NSA, who are undoubtedly quite interested in any communication dealing with SCUD+"White House". Howdy fellas!

      --
      "Inattention makes clowns of us all" -Bean
  2. Legal? by Cyno01 · · Score: 5, Funny

    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."
    1. Re:Legal? by (startx) · · Score: 5, Funny

      you've still got those nasty crypto export regulations to deal with, and as you pointed out, space is not the US, so if your sending out your weather control system, better make sure the controls have some very weak, legal encryption.

    2. Re:Legal? by Meridun · · Score: 4, Interesting
      As funny as it is, this is actually pretty much the heart of why it costs so much to launch satellites: any rocket capable of putting something into orbit is realistically an ICBM.

      Near the anniversary of Sputnik (which I think was last week), I'd remind everyone that it was this fact that was why Sputnik was so frightening to Americans; if the Soviets could put a beeping piece of metal into orbit, they could just as easily have made it come down near us instead.

      Therefore, any company that is capable of putting cargo into space is very likely to find itself under strict regulation, due to the potential for that cargo to be miss orbit either accidentally or purposely.

    3. Re:Legal? by Meridun · · Score: 5, Informative
      Correct, yet not as dangerous.

      Very few commercial planes travel above Mach 1. In order to get a package into orbit, it has to be going quite a bit faster. For example, geostationary orbit (orbiting once every 24 hours at 22,300 mi altitude/ 35,000 mi from center of earth) requires the satellite to be moving at about 9,000 mph. Given that Mach 1 is about 750 mph, that means that our satellite is traveling above Mach 12.

      Frankly, that's the real threat of an ICBM. It's extraordinarily difficult to shoot down something moving at 12 times the speed of sound and your decision time to engage is very small. Therefore, you are correct that Commercial Aviation does have this type of hazard, but I think you'll agree that the magnitude of danger is quite different.

  3. Liability issues could be enormous by Ryu2 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.
  4. Old News??? by razvedchik · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.
  5. This isn't new by wyopittsa · · Score: 5, Interesting

    According to this article there is a spaceport in California that has been launching since the year 2000. Does anyone know anymore about it?

  6. You know... by Moonshadow · · Score: 5, Funny
    I wonder if, for a certain price, you could shoot various people you don't like off into the voids of space. Now THERE's a business plan.

    "Want a certain someone to disappear? Call 1-800-ASTRONAUT - the perfect birthday or anniversary gift!"

    They'd make millions.

  7. Linux MicroSat maybe... by OmenChange · · Score: 5, Funny

    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."

    1. Re:Linux MicroSat maybe... by ahooton · · Score: 4, Funny
      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: "Hey, you've got all the RPMs you need up there already! First, check the dependencies on air-scrubber.2.4.16-20, and be sure you have air-scrubber-lib.2.4.14-4 loaded first, which is on CD #3, and...

  8. Re:Oooh! by sconeu · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.
  9. John Powell is a great guy by PhantomHarlock · · Score: 5, Interesting
    JP Aerospace is a great little company, partially run by volunteers. Their main specialty is extremely high altitude balloon platforms (edge of space) from which they can conduct experiments and launch rockets. John does a lot of work with kids and education, including taking up "Pong-Sats", which are ping pong balls cut open and stuffed with what ever the kids want to put in them, sans live animals. One person put some digital camera memory in it with all the bits set to zero, and then when it came back got a very accurate radiation measurement by counting all the bits that had flipped.

    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

  10. armadillo by Kallahar · · Score: 4, Informative

    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

  11. You guys are about 40 years late with this story by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  12. bad location! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

  13. When the rocket veers off course by bbc22405 · · Score: 5, Funny

    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. :-)

  14. Stop Blaming NASA for Everything by Detritus · · Score: 5, Informative
    The Eastern Range (Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Kennedy Space Center) and Western Range (Vandenberg Air Force Base) are run by the U.S. Air Force. They set the safety requirements and have the responsibility for the safe operation of the range.

    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