Cape Breton Enters Space Race

thatguywhoiam writes "A private deal has been put into place to construct a large space facility in Cape Breton. The Toronto Star says '...that Nova Scotia has signed a "team agreement" to provide 300 acres of land — and perhaps even some funding — for a massive orbital launch facility that will involve industry giants and could eventually be on scale with huge NASA operations. "We're basically building a private manned space program for Canada," says Chicago's Dr. Chirinjeev Kathuria, chairman of the PlanetSpace firm that lit the fuse for this deal. "The facility will see orbital flights, similar to the Kennedy Space Center."'"

Comments

More spaceports than airport hubs

[andrewman327]

I am pleased by the massive growth of spaceport proposals lately. If all of the proposals come to fruition (which is unlikely) there will be as many spaceports as there are major airline hubs today.

I hope that the Canadian government doesn't present too many miles of red tape. Won't there be negative impact to launching from a high latitude? I know that other spaceports boast about how close to the equator they are.

The biggest difference between this facility and other proposals is the larger scope of this project. Instead of $20mil a shot tourists, the Canadians are playing catch up with the Americans, Russians, Europeans, etc. to have a real non-commercial space program. From TFA:

Earlier this year, the pair began negotiations with the province and other players in the aerospace industry to build a facility and spacecraft they hope will eventually shuttle astronauts and supplies to the international space station.

Re:More spaceports than airport hubs

[Curtman]

It's too bad we let Fort Churchill rust away. A few years ago it was claimed to be one of the best sites for launching missions to ISS, and there's very few people around if things go wrong.