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Legislators: 'Spaceport America Could Become a Ghost Town'
RocketAcademy writes "A group of New Mexico legislators is warning that the $200-million Spaceport America 'could become a ghost town, with tumbleweeds crossing the runways' if trial lawyers succeed in blocking critical liability legislation. The warning came in a letter to the Albuquerque Journal [subscription or free trial may be required]. Virgin Galactic has signed a lease to become the spaceport's anchor tenant, but may pull out if New Mexico is unable to provide liability protection for manufacturers and part suppliers, similar to legislation already passed by Texas, Colorado, Florida, and Virginia. The proposed legislation is also similar to liability protection which New Mexico offers to the ski industry. An eclectic group of business and civic interests has formed the Save Our Spaceport Coalition to support passage of the liability reform legislation, which is being fought by the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association."
Isn't it terribly convenient that, on the cusp of commercial spaceflight really taking a step forward a commercial spaceflight centre is threatened by legal action.
Of course you should be liable if a poorly designed rocket crashes into your home, explodes and kills you.
Complete the port and then shoot the trial lawyers into space.
And this folks is precisely why we never get anything done anymore... Between the lawyers / politicians / managers who "just want to get along", we will just sit here and spin our wheels until our society falls apart.
corporate welfare to me, the cost of which is borne by the tax payers.
If the business can't generate enough cash flow to pay the liability insurance bill, maybe the business shouldn't exist.
No more trips to Alpha Centauri!
-- By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.
Let private space fail on its own, it doesn't need "help" from bottom-feeding sociopathic scum.
After more than half a century of big rockets, they still crash far too often. About 5%-10% of satellite launches still fail. Chemically powered rockets have to be weight-reduced to the point that they're inherently unreliable.
Boeing doesn't have legislation protecting them if one of their airliners crashes onto somebody's house. They carry private insurance for that. If affordable insurance isn't available from the private sector, the technology isn't safe enough for use by private parties.
The previous administration in New Mexico was involved in some major boondoggles. There's this spaceport, which is way overbuilt. There's the reposessed supercomputer. More recently, there was that bogus empty test city in the desert project. New Mexico keeps trying to monetize all that desert, but it's not working.
And this folks is precisely why we never get anything done anymore...
No, this is why New Mexico apparently isn't serious about having a spaceport. I know Colorado already has a robust space industry and would probably welcome the opportunity to host a spaceport if New Mexico doesn't want to do it.
!#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.
Get the lawyers involved.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
There's a special interest group --for lawyers-- to pressure lawmakers to make laws --for the benefit of lawyers-- to maintain an intractible wall of legal liabilities, so said lawyers will never run out of people to sue?
And we are taking it.... seriously?
For real?
Coming from an industry that makes flagrant use of offset liabilities and liability law loopholes (the legal profession), this seems to be not only pathologically stupid and self destructive, but also blatantly hipocritical.
Seriously, an association for trial lawyers?
"And this folks is precisely why we never get anything done anymore."
I think this is mostly a USA-specific curse, so the business will just go elsewhere. You do seem to be rather plagued by lawyers, and citizens ready to sue for millions/quadra-tetra-billions at the first whiff of a split hot coffee or cracked paving slab that might cause them emotional damage.
So I think it will just be to the detriment of the USA and not necessarily anywhere else. Though to be fair we do seem to be having more of this kind of legal madness occurring in Europe these days as well, so perhaps space will be Asian based in the future?
This leaves out the only critical information of interest- what kind of litigation for what cause are they trying to be exempt from?
is bullshit.
Your shit blows up and damages something, then you are liable.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
What's the big deal as long as I have my ObamaPhone?
Another loony right winger whining who seems to actually believe the silly things that is said by reactionary blowhards such as Rush Limbaugh. It was George Bush who extended an depression era 'free phone' program for the poor to include cell phones.
It wouldn't be the first time lawyers have caused a little bit of trouble.
Excuse me genius, is "right winger" supposed to be some kind of insult?
Do you understand that most conservatives do not think of George Bush being much of a conservative at all? Do you? Do you understand that most conservatives do not listen to Rush?
Do you actually have an argument you wish to make or are you content just to lash out with non sequiturs and call names? Pretty pathetic if you ask me.
I believe it was actually Reagan who implemented the phone subsidy program. What everyone should really be upset about is why it took a Mexican company to figure out that they could make money by offering a cell phone and plan cheap enough that you could afford the whole thing with the subsidy.
Get Richard Branson involved
" being fought by the New Mexico Trial Lawyers Association."
Amazing, a conservative Republican renouncing someone after he's no longer useful, we haven't heard this before. IIR the vote for Prsident Bush fell along party lines, with conservatives voting him in. You voted him in, you nominated him, he's yours. The "liberals" got Al Gore, Kerry, Kennedy and Obama each with their own issues. You don't just get to say he's not ours because it's inconvenient to your belief system. Most conservatives don't listen to Rush? Right...and Fox News isn't the #1 conservative news source. I'm fairly certain most non-partisan people don't consider descriptive words as insults, though it's possible that it can be construed as that. We have a predetermined right and left wing of our political spectrum, so calling someone right winger or left winger isn't generally a major insult. Sarcastic use of the word genius, would however be ironically insulting.
His point, since it seems to alude you, is that being a reactionary, hyperbolic windbag by using a known false statement that is used as a talking point has no place in this discussion as it is irrelevant to the point at hand. The discussion was about Spaceports and regulation, not about whether or not the government was providing federal benefits to poor people so they could have a reasonable chance at getting gainful employment.
I'm tired of partisan bickering getting in the way of real issues, isn't about time we had some adult populace in the room that didn't sneer and start choosing what was best for their side as soon as an issue is found. Sometimes being an adult means you're wrong or you have to take responsibility even if it's not your fault or your problem. It's amazing that when the President and John Boehner worked so hard to get something together that typical partisan garbage can unwind what the entire country wants. If you're not part of the solution you're part of the problem. Let's roll up our sleeves and get to work fixing what we know is broken. It's up to us to do it, even if that means we end up getting dirty and doing things we don't like or that go against our normal political motivations.
This quote from Lord of War.
"You know who's going to inherit the world? Arms dealers. Because everyone else is too busy killing each other."
It should instead be:
You know who's going to inherit the world? Lawyers. Because everyone else is too busy suing each other.
At what point is 'being or not a conservative' germane to a discussion of who is really 'responsible' for what you(?) call an Obamaphone? However, since you bring it up, at what point did you decide that he wasn't really a conservative? I spent years complaining that his (and the rest of the GOP actions) proved that he wasn't a real fiscal conservative, but never saw any traction on it. Seems to me that throughout his presidency he was considered plenty conservative by most who claim that word as a personal description (really, it's more of a brand name these days), can you show me any self described conservative that made that claim before 2008?
Also, your point about 'calling names' would stand out better if you didn't (I assume sarcastically) call me a 'genius' and yes 'right winger' is an insult ('loony' is an unneeded adjective).
It's not calling names, it's pointing out facts. Of course, you wouldn't man up to the truth any more than a skinhead would admit to being a bigoted waste of skin.
For an industry which is mature enough that it does not expldoe or come back crashing down on you about 5% of the time, you can reduce the logn tail reliability. But an industry like rocket ? Forget it.
If one of these rockets comes crashing down on your head, you sure as hell aren't going to want the launcher to have special protections. And, if the shit comes down, a trial lawyer is going to be your only weapon against the megacorporations financing these launches.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
My old boss was always telling me "not to re-invent the wheel" when I was designing and writing my software...
There's a fully functional, well established spaceport about 20 miles from where I live in east central Florida. It seems to be largely unused these days and it has a huge safety range already established as well (i.e. the Atlantic Ocean.) Perhaps those folk should consider moving their operations here instead of building their own.
If they choose to stay there, I wish them better luck than we had lobbying to save Spaceport.Florida.
They're not talking about protection for people on the ground. They're saying the people onboard are taking all the risk and directly comparing it to skiing. We're at the point where ski equipment is probably quite reliable and in addition a skier can and should inspect their own equipment and be blamed for any liability. None of that is true for the space industry - the passengers are not in control, could not make a reasonable inspection of anything, and the field is so new there may certainly be negligence on the part of the manufacturer. Watch the videos from Space Ship One, see where Burt Rutan tells his guys to go down to the junkyard and see what kind of parts they can find - 'cause the automotive guys have some good stuff. While I'm certain they're doing a higher quality job on the commercial vehicles, I think it would be unfair to shield them from liability to the extent of the ski-equipment industry.
so we send up 100 flights a uber rich people and 2 will goo poof
thats less jerks in the world
we should make it mandatory for them so one day they get whats coming....to them
Yes, calling you a right winger is an insult. He didn't say "conservative" he used the pejorative "winger." Having read your post, you don't have a lot of room to cry over insults, winger.
You mean your Reagan phone? Oh - sorry. I guess the fact that it's a 30yr old program and it's actually cheaper for the program to provide cell phones than traditional land lines shouldn't make any difference...
Don't forget what a bitchin' Drag race track this would make.
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
As someone who is 100% behind the idea of commercial space activities and hopes one-day to be able to go into space (or on a sub-orbital flight) myself, I am 100% behind the idea of giving manufacturers and parts suppliers protection from liability if the operators of the space flight do everything in their power to make it safe and something goes wrong anyway.
Standard business behavior. Make the public pay for liability, but don't give the public the profits. Keep all profits for the investors, who supposedly deserve it for... no one knows why. Then use some of those profits to pay accountants to stash the cash in some foreign country and avoid taxes which might somehow benefit the people. Because those people paying for liability insurance don't deserve anything but grief for helping rich people fly into space. Makes good sense for a few, but not for the many.
Spaceport America is a government boondoggle that will die in court. The governor of NM is trying and failing to secure private investors, most of whom know better than to sacrifice their capital to this lawsuit magnet.
If and when something like this gets built it will happen in Mexico. Virgin or whomever will pay off the local kleptocrats, put some Blackwater guys on the perimeter and fly their paying customers in with a Sikorsky. The Romper Room States of America will not be involved.
Unless the Air Force picks it up for a song as a maintenance depot, or something, nothing will ever fly out of "Spaceport America."
Maw! Fire up the karma burner!
Yeah, but it's paid for by the phone companies, using fees they collect for it. How is that right? Companies shouldn't be shackled by conservative mandated rules and forced to give up their god given profits. Didn't Jesus say Render from Caesar all that you can, to lord it over the peasants in the fields?
I drank what? -- Socrates
US companies can build the same tech overseas, for example in Brazil, and locate their spaceport there too. Spaceport gets built either way.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
The issue is that Martinez has purposely been gutting these projects. The supercomputers are hard to sell when you purposely yank the sales people. Likewise, Pegasus Global Holdings pulled out of CITE because Martinez did not live up to what she was supposed to. She wanted the state to pay for a number of items such as utilities, while her partners had the land that they were going to sell to Pegasus. Problem is, that Martinez's parners got greedy.
Basically, Martinez is the exact opposite of Richardson. She is as corrupt as they come.