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Mid-Atlantic Commercial Spaceport Makes First Launch
Posted by
kdawson
on Sat Dec 16, 2006 02:45 PM
from the scaring-the-ponies dept.
from the scaring-the-ponies dept.
PeeAitchPee writes "East Coast residents of the US were treated to the first launch from the mid-Atlantic region's commercial spaceport. The 69-foot Minotaur I rocket soared from the launch pad at 7 a.m. ET, after teams spent the week resolving a glitch in software for one of the satellites that had scrubbed a liftoff on Monday. I witnessed the launch while driving to BWI airport this morning and it was beautiful! It left a zig-zag contrail in the southern sky and the separation / ignition of one of the upper stages was clearly visible." The spaceport, a commercial collaboration of Virginia and Maryland, is on the Delmarva peninsula south of the Maryland line, just west of Chincoteague Island.
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Spaceport America Takes Off 153 comments
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."
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TSA (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Fun with kids (Score:5, Funny)
Mmm (Score:2, Insightful)
Haha. You totally pwned that kid. That'll teach him to trust you when he wants to learn something. </sarcasm>
I'm sorry, but I've never understood the joy some people find in deceiving children who come to them with honest questions. Those kids want to learn the truth and you tell them a lie for your own amusement while pretending to help them.
It's just like religion.
Minotaur, eh? (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
That might be just a wee bit of a stretch for the funny.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
"69"..."phallic"...*snicker*
How long before space tourism is widespread? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:How long before space tourism is widespread? (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
The real news is... (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
anyone know of a launch schedule? (Score:2)
Saskatchewan port still in progress (Score:3, Interesting)
It would be nice to have a "northerly" launch point, even though it's more common to have pads closer to the equator.
I saw it (Score:5, Interesting)
As I watched today, I said, "What's that?". To the east a thin bright white contrail grew longer and longer. What's that? I had no idea. Something "shiny" was drawing a line on the sky. The contrail quickly went from a line to jaggy. My guess - Something must be traveling vertical, going through different wind layers.
Acceleration was easily visible - not at all like a cruising plane. It changed course from what may have been nearly vertical to something much closer to horizontal. At times, a long "wake" was visible - a bright line vee from the base of the "shiny thing".
I had no idea what I was looking at. Now I do.
Shiny? The rocket exhaust flame? The distance from Bowie to Wallops is on the order of 100 miles, I can't have been seeing the rocket itself.
It might be decade or so since that last time I've seen a "not looking for it" launch display from the Wallops area.
Re:I saw it (Score:4, Funny)
Parent
smoke trails (Score:4, Funny)
The nice thing about solid fuel rockets (as opposed to liquid-fuel), is that they leave a nice, visible trail as they ascend, which often persists for 30 minutes or more. Here on the W/C, we get to see minuteman missile tests out of Vandenberg 2-3 times a year. (mostly in the middle of the night, though).
When you see something like an Atlas or Delta go up, there isn't much of a trail at all, so if you aren't watching closely, you can miss it.
Of course, there are some bad things about solid-fuel rockets; the exhaust is often pretty nasty stuff, corrosive, and toxic. Plus, you can't throttle them back or shut them off if something goes wrong. On the other hand, they're so simple, mechanically, you're not likely to need to throttle them back.
But the best thing about solids, is that they usually supplement the larger Atlas and Delta vehicles, and you get to hear rocket scientists talk about "strap-ons".
Mid Atlantic? (Score:2, Insightful)
Saw it from Pittsburgh (Score:2, Interesting)
http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/10552546
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Looks like a boondoggle (Score:4, Informative)
This is not a new construction. This is land (and launch pads) leased from the Wallops Island [nasa.gov] facility. NASA has been launching stuff from there for decades.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
This is land (and launch pads) leased from the Wallops Island [nasa.gov] facility. NASA has been launching stuff from there for decades.
You are right, though it's my understanding that the land was actually purchased, along with rights-of-way enabling vehicular traffic to the now privatized (at taxpayer expense) launch area. But even if it is leased, it's a privatization paid for by the citizens of the area in order to boost employment, which is a kind of a boondoggle. This is another means of getting money from ta
Re: (Score:2)
Looks like the taxpayers just got boondoggled out of roughly double the amount of money it would have taken...
I don't suppose you have any backup for that claim, do you?
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Looks like a boondoggle (Score:5, Informative)
So what if it's a economically challened area, the STATE (and then states) funded the launch pad, NOT the feds. They are lifting themselves up for their own area, not looking for federal handouts. And ranges DON'T hire rocket scientists at all (unless the scientist is looking for a stiff pay cut). These are typical building maintenance and electronic types. Even if they could launch from their own port, it presents two problems. ALL federally controlled space ports are overpriced since their government jobs, and they want/need to have launch sites in different areas to allow different orbital insertion planes. The bottom line is the military likes having places like this or Spaceport Alaska to give them more options and lower overhead.
You should also point to this launch site, since it's a heck of a lot closer:
http://www.spacetoday.org/Rockets/Spaceports/Laun
And no, most military launches aren't any more secure than civilian launches. EVERYBODY is concerned when there is a multi-million dollar highly-explosive vehicle sitting on the launchpad. Only some launches are under super tight security (and contained unlabelled/mis-labelled cargo).
Parent