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Private Space Firm XCOR May Establish HQ In Midland, Texas
MarkWhittington writes "A deal is in the works to establish a corporate headquarters in Midland, Texas for XCOR, a commercial space company that is developing a suborbital space tourism vehicle, the Lynx. The deal will likely also involve certifying Midland International Air Port as a space port so that the Lynx can operate there. XCOR is characterizing the move as an expansion as it still intends to maintain operations at the Mojave Spaceport in California."
Putting a spaceport in Midland, Texas is not so unreasonable. It is not very different, in terms of infrastructure, from any Rust Belt town. It has the added advantage of being both in the middle of nowhere and in a state where the business will be given a fairly free hand. More importantly, it is relatively close to Houston (and I say that in the sense of close that only a Texan could use).
I don't know what kind of space you're talking about, but the one being used for the purpose of these craft is above 60 miles altitude... figure the service ceiling for a 747 is what, 41,000 ft, 8 miles, uh, you're about 50 miles shy of space, but who am I to split hairs.
Friend, I'm betting some ignorant clod standing at the dock in Spain in the 17th century, said "There goes that Columbus whack-o-doodle, sailing off the edge of the world, I hope a great big fat sea monster swallows him whole." He redefined what was possible for being human.
The future is up there. Because what's down here is extinction. Not tomorrow, or the day after, but someday, perhaps soon. Because big, nasty events happen here. 'We have mega-volcanoes, tectonic hoohah, and tsunamis that can wipe out entire coastlines. We have Extinction Level Events, and bio hazards, and wars and technological snafus galore. Have you not been reading the news? The west is on fire, and the east is melting. More records were broken in last month than ever before in history, and the weather people are now saying that the duration and strength of the current heat wave places it in a completely new category, redefining what is even possible for a heat wave. So its time for us to at once begin cleaning up our messes, but also be aware of the mortality of our species and make arrangements to get off this little rock, because we've begun to wear out or welcome. Or perhaps you'd prefer a 99.9% die-off and going back to an agrarian society (minus oil, coal and the means to leave if things got ugly.)
That was the estimated final price, and they stopped short of that, at 2 billion.
As far as workers, if I were an aerospace engineer I would be more interested in working on cool stuff like this with long term civilian potential than the fact that it is in the middle of nowhere. This is an exciting time to be a young person, more exciting than 20 years ago when the Space Shuttle was in the heyday.
I know what clear lake was like before JSC. I can only imagine what backwater the area around KSC was like. Los Alamos was only a boys school before the the national lab was installed. There is nothing to limit what we are going to be doing with commercial space travel except our imagination.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black