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One Step Closer To Spaceport America

Posted by Zonk on from the is-it-safe dept.

space_hippy writes "The next step for a project we've previously discussed has now come around: thanks to a sales tax increase it seems as though the residents of Dona Ana county in New Mexico will be playing host to the first American commercial spaceport. From the BBC article: 'Residents in the US state of New Mexico have approved a new tax to build the nation's first commercial spaceport. Dona Ana County is a relatively poor and bleak swath of desert in southern New Mexico with fewer than 200,000 residents. But voters passed a 0.25% increase in the local sales tax to help contribute to the cost of building Spaceport America. Sir Richard Branson has signed a long-term lease with the state of New Mexico to make the new spaceport the headquarters of his Virgin Galactic space tourism business. The spaceport is expected to open in 2009, and Virgin Galactic says space flights will cost around $200,000 for a 2.5-hour flight.'"

3 of 149 comments (clear)

  1. why would they pay? by Un+pobre+guey · · Score: -1, Flamebait
    Why would 200,000 impoverished people pay extra sales tax to build a "spaceport" for the usual crowd of international super-rich assholes? Beyond that, how much money can this possibly raise, enough to build part of the parking lot? They must be desperate for even menial, servile employment.

    More dipshit ideas from corrupt businessmen and politicians, and the SciFi fanboys who support them.

  2. Re:finally by Un+pobre+guey · · Score: -1, Flamebait
    Get real. This is hardly "commercial space flight," it is an extremely elitist amusement park for the very wealthy. Good luck getting your 15 min ride any time soon. No doubt you believe we will soon colonize the solar system, travel to distant stars, escape from the cataclysmic asteroid, terraform Mars and move populations there, etc. Get real. Those things will not happen, ever. A few people may eventually make it out there, but at great cost and nothing that can be called "colonization" or "humanity's escape from cataclysm." If an asteroid hits earth, we are in deep shit. There are not enough resources to evacuate a significant amount of people. Not now, not ever.

    Physical limitations, energy and mass balances and the like don't give a crap about your sappy dreams. We need to save the planet, not continue to give money away to aerospace industry swindlers and the pimps of the very rich.

    Grow the fuck up for chrissakes.

  3. Tax and subsidize your way to prosperity! by Rotten168 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    It's the American way!