A Spaceport In Ohio?

UglyTool writes to alert us to an initiative by the state of Ohio and the city of Columbus to lure Canadian rocketeers PlanetSpace to launch from an area airport (the former Lockbourne Air Force Base, now called Rickenbacker International Airport). A decision on the incentives could be made by January. From the article: "Such a package could include tax credits, financing programs and training grants amounting to millions of dollars... PlanetSpace's chairman, Indian-American entrepreneur Chirinjeev Kathuria, told MSNBC.com he expected the incentives to amount to 'somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 million.'" Five other states have spaceports approved or planned.

Comments

Re:Saddle Up!

[antispam_ben]

As the other poster said, it doesn't matter for a sub-orbital flight. But even for orbital flights, taxes are a lot larger percentage of a commercial entities expenses than the equator's speed is a percentage of orbital velocity.

But it also depends on what orbit you want. For a polar orbit it doesn't matter where you launch from, as an east-west speed differential won't help you go north-south. The big problem with a polar launch for an equatorial orbit surely isn't the lack of equator velocity boost, but rather the fuel used to go from the pole to the equator and then making that 90-degree turn at the equator.

Re:Ohio story

[Robot Randy]

Actually, the first man to orbit the Earth was the Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who orbited on April 12, 1961.

John Glenn was the first AMERICAN to orbit the Earth, which he did on February 20, 1962.

Alan Shepard was the first American into space. He was aboard Freedom 7 on a suborbital flight on May 5, 1961.

Rocket Science eludes Slashdot.

[camperdave]

Why all the comments about being close to the equator? This is a SUBORBITAL craft. It goes up, and then comes down. It travels no more than 50 miles horizontally. It makes no difference whatsoever where on the planet the craft is launched from. There are many places in Canada from which they can launch. Ohio just wants to grab a slice of the pie. In fact, the suggested airbase is actually not viable, because the first stage (the red and white rocket shaped part) is designed to splash down. There is no major lake near Rickenbacker.