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First-Ever Private Spaceport Nears Final Approval

Posted by simoniker on from the just-like-the-jetsons dept.

bobhagopian writes "According to the article on Space.com, the Federal Aviation Administration is nearing the final stages of certifying the Mojave Airport as the first-ever private spaceport. Both Scaled Composites and XCOR Aerospace (the two leading competitors in the X-Prize competition) currently fly out of Mojave Airport. The approval of a commercial spaceport will certainly facilitate the creation of even more private-sector space technologies."

5 of 231 comments (clear)

  1. Really Cool Place by kavachameleon · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Mojave Airport is a really cool place... you drive by it and there's nothing but random planes, everything from jetliners to fighter jets. They're mostly an aircraft storage yard. Picture of their storage yard Link to their main site

  2. There's already a spaceport by xil · · Score: 5, Informative

    What about the Green River Intergalactic Spaceport in Wyoming?

  3. Not the First by DynaSoar · · Score: 5, Informative

    It remains to be seen whether Mojave will in fact get approved. Either way, Southwest Regional Spaceport near Las Cruces NM had already been announced by Ansari/X-Prize, as the spaceport site chosen for at least an annual X-Prize event, and expecting the X-Prize contenders who (win or lose) continue on and offer services to the public. Plus, according to the articles which may or may not be accurate, Mojave is being considered for horizontal launched craft. SRS is not being restricted to horizontal launch. My money says SRS will become a regular gathering place for the next step in rocketry, those growing out of amateur/hobbyist rocketry ($100 gets you a model that goes Mach 1 and a mile up) and those following hot on the jets of Ky "Rocketman" Michaelson and CSXT's recent first private rocket into space.

    --
    "I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
  4. A few corrections by jfoust · · Score: 5, Informative
    • The original poster called this the "first-ever private spaceport", but it's not clear this is true, depending on one's definition of private. It is certainly not the first commercial spaceport: FAA/AST has issued commercial spaceport licenses for years to facilities in Alaska (Kodiak), California (Vandenberg), Florida (Cape Canaveral), and Virginia (Wallops). Mojave, though, would be the first commercial inland licensed spaceport.

    • XCOR Aerospace is not a competitor for the Ansari X Prize.

    • Technically, Scaled does not need a spaceport license to perform its flights from Mojave. (Recall that Scaled already has a launch license from AST.) As far as the FAA is concerned, SpaceShipOne's launch "site" is the White Knight carrier aircraft, which takes off from Mojave under an experimental airworthiness certificate, as I recall. Thus Scaled does not need to wait for Mojave Airport to get a spaceport license.

  5. XCOR not participating in X-Prize by JCallery · · Score: 5, Informative

    Both Scaled Composites and XCOR Aerospace (the two leading competitors in the X-Prize competition) currently fly out of Mojave Airport.

    Scaled Composites is taking part in the X-Prize competition, but XCOR is not. They are developing their products to break into a market of suborbital payloads and microsatellites, as well as the passenger market (they are currently under contract with Space Adventures to provide the space travel experience to "adventure travelers" for $98,000 when the technology is ready). You can read more about their goals on their website.

    The X-Prize website hosts a list of the teams competing for the X-Prize.