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Spaceport America Takes Off
SeaDour writes "Spaceport America, being built north of Las Cruces, New Mexico, is finally becoming a reality and is set to become the world's first commercial spaceport. Governor Bill Richardson recently secured 33 million dollars from the state legislature for the final design, and a proposed 0.25% sales tax increase in Dona Ana County, where the facility is to be constructed, is expected to bring an additional 6.5 million dollars per year (if approved by voters next week). Richard Branson, the head of upstart Virgin Galactic, on Monday agreed to lease the facility for 27.5 million dollars over twenty years. If all continues to go as planned, SpaceShipTwo will make its first suborbital joy ride in two to three years."
Great, another industry being propped up by government revenue. Because that worked so well for the telecommunications industry.
Not a typewriter
Study your history.
GNU/America took off years ago, and didn't work out.
If moderation could change anything, it would be illegal.
Am I the only one that sees the oxymoron here... "the world's first commercial spaceport" vs "Governor Bill Richardson recently secured 33 million dollars from the state legislature for the final design, and a proposed 0.25% sales tax increase in Dona Ana County,
This is a government spaceport. Possible deployed to deliver commercial products into space but it should be billed corrected as a government facility. Yet another shining example of your tax dollars at work. I am glad I don't live in that state/county but I fully expect that when a tornado or hurricane wipes it out I will have to foot the FEMA bill for it.
I'm not against space ports. But if Virgin Galactic wants a facility then Virgin Galactic should foot the bill for it.
I will never live for sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.
1: Build Space port for $33 Million
2: Lease to Richard Branson for $27.5 million for 20 years.
3: Raise taxes!
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Branson, is going to lease 83,000 square feet for $1 million a year. Does anyone know if this is only a small part of the space port or will he be taking the biggest spot?
"Anything tastes good if you deep fry it."
...unless it has a Starbuck's.
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
..will there be lemon-soaked paper napkins?
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Ouch! Your knee jerked right into my shin!
And my two thoughts are:
1. This will be very good for that part of New Mexico. As a whole, the state is relatively poor.
2. What on earth would you use a spaceport for? I don't think in terms of eighth grade pulp sci-fi these days (think Tek Jansen), so seriously, what would a spaceport be for?
-- haaz.
The amounts of money mentioned seem rather low for a space port, they seem more in line with a cruise line port or fancy bus station.
One ring to bind them - should probably have more fiber and less rings in their diet.
I am amused that the summary says it will be the first commercial spaceport, while the "related" section points to http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/12/1 6/1736213, an article from last year about the mid-atlantic regional spaceport's first launch.
This will be the first purpose-built commercial spaceport. That's a key distinction.
... a duty free shop?
One ring to bind them - should probably have more fiber and less rings in their diet.
If this were funded federally, then your point makes sense. But it's not, and so it doesn't.
PURE LACK-OF-COMPREHENSION BULLSHIT
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
I would start making contacts right now to secure a position in this space port.
It's a risk, but the potential pay off and wow factor would be to large to ignore.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
When Virgin Galactic wants a space port they have some decisions to make. They can either spend $27 million now and lose out on the interest over the next 20 years, Borrow $27 million with interest to be payed over the next 20 years or Rent space which allows them to maintain their assets in high yield investments with no additional interest costs.
So you are heading up Virgin Galactic and you are trying to decide were you want to spend $27 million dollars to establish a service catering specifically to the ultra rich. You would probably put it in a state like California, New York, or maybe Virginia, if you don't decided to put it in Dubai or some other country outside the US.
This leads us to New Mexico, home of absolutely nothing, with a less than stellar economy. If you are the governor of New Mexico and you hear that Virgin Galactic is looking for somewhere to spend $27 Million dollars, and bring some of the richest tourist in the world to your state what do you do. You could say, go ahead an build it if you can find someone to sell you the land we will approve the zoning. Or maybe you decided you can sell some public trust land for the project. So far you have made no offer that other wealthier areas couldn't make, and so give no enticement to build in your state. So instead you say, I'll front the money for you to bring in your industry and higher local people to work for you. You might feel that enticing companies to move to your state is a waste of governmental funds, but I think you would be in a minority there.
I'm going to keep my eye on that little slice of Earth for awhile - frankly, they may want to hire a lot of I.T., and I find it unlikely at best that they'll settle for not having somebody around with more than five to six years of experience, tops.
Which one?
... or the one played by Dirk Benedict? :)
The alcohol guzzling, cigar smoking, disobedient, hot-shot pilot
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
Or will the taxpayers of that county be subsidizing the sending of dubiously talented pop stars into the really really upper atmosphere?
Just playing devil's advocate here, but people are going to ask that question or something similar.
... I thought that they already had one in Roswell.
Vi havas e-poston.
For all budding teenage wanabee gazillionaires who may be able to afford this one day.
The knack of flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. - HGTTG
I'll bet all the landowners in that area have a very big smile and even bigger if all goes as planned. Wish I had some spare cash I would definitely buy a a big plot of sand.
WTF?
Hot and scratchy; Check!
I drank what? -- Socrates
"Spaceport America, Fuck Yeah"
it is only after a long journey that you know the strength of the horse.
even if it was Federal, it doesn't mean pork barrel.
Therea re very good reasons for supporting a new industry.
If 30 million in means starting a billion dollar industry, the the government will easily recoup its expense.
Hell, the technology NASA has developed, or been developed to meet a NASA request, as returned about 10 bucks for every tax dollar they spent.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
perhaps we would be able to respond able to threats from space more quickly. perhaps their is a ton of money to be made. perhaps there are some large scale public works projects we could do up there to help little people down below. i have a hunch it will work out . trust me
1. $27.5MM lease -- but that doesn't include the user fees and ground rent they'll be paying. Nor does it include the lease payments, user fees, and ground rents other lessees will be paying.
2. State income tax.
3. Sales tax increase -- so what if they raise the ST in the region to get them into the black; that doesn't discount the fact that they'll be in the black.
$198MM. Additional revenues of $7.5MM/yr discounting 1 & 2 from above. 26 years to pay back the principal, even without those revenues...
Maybe you're missing the point that because they are making up the shortage, the shortage won't exist.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
The original comment was "When Virgin Galactic needs a space port, they can build one. Why is tax money building this?" Your response is (essentially) that they are using tax money to build this. In particular, the bulk of the funding is from tax money. There's no shortage (except in the wallets of the people paying the tax), but no one has claimed a shortage. The claim is that tax money shouldn't finance other people's business schemes.
Companies like Virgin claim they're privatizing space, but they're still on the government dole.
It's also worth noting that with financing, the cost will be higher than $198 million. If it's being paid over thirty years, even modest interest rates would put it over $400 million. Yes, the tax revenues will increase too, but generally not as fast as the interest (revenues go up about 3-4% a year; interest is more like 6-8%). Unless they can bring in other tenants, they will probably have to raise taxes before the end of Virgin's lease.
Since Virgin is spreading its $27 million across twenty years, it is likely that the federal money ($25 million) is actually worth more.