Commercial Spaceport In Texas

Scothoser writes "CNN has this article on a rocket that was launched on a ranch site near Stockton, Texas. Their hope is that it will become a commercial launch site for anything, as long as it is legal. The major reason for this move is that using NASA launch sites are prohibitively expensive. This way someone can launch their home-made satellites for much less than approaching NASA. Now I am just waiting for the HOW-TO on a Linux-run micro-satellite!"

Linux?

[dacarr]

Why not? We radio hams have all sorts of crap in space already. =^_^=

More than two spaceports in United States

[WolfWithoutAClause]

There's also a spaceport in Oklahoma, and the state gives tax breaks for people who move their rocketry stuff there. Launch licenses are also somewhat easier to obtain. I happen to know John Carmack was considering doing some of his stuff there.

Re:More than two spaceports in United States

[ikluft]

Yes. Some states are trying to open various spaceport concepts to attract what is currently a fledgling niche in the aerospace industry working on commercial launches.

JP Aerospace [jpaerospace.com] who did Saturday's launch in Texas also did the inaugural flight at Oklahoma's spaceport (a former Air Force base at the town of Burns Flat) in March with two high-altitude balloons. One carried meteorology instruments for Oklahoma Univ to 100,000 ft. The second released at 95,000 ft about 550 paper airplanes made by Oklahoma school kids.

I'm a JPA member. I was there as part of the crew in Oklahoma. I drove both payloads back to the launch site in my truck. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the time off work to do the Texas flight or I'd be there now too.

Re:More than two spaceports in United States

[jpbostic]

The Oklahoma location isn't just any old runway...try the fourth longest in CONUS, IIRC. Check it out . This thing is a monster (13,503 ft). I've personally been in a small aircraft taking off and landing on it. I'm surprised that the big air freight and shipping companies haven't snatched up space there (it's just a few miles off I-40), let alone rocketeers. [swoda.org]

armadillo

[Kallahar]

Carmack's Armadillo Aerospace (god, I'd love to go work for them :) tried to launch in Texas but couldn't get approval. They had to drive 6 hours to Oklahoma which is launch-friendly (if you give manufacturing preference to OK companies). There are many places that are offering alternative launch locations to NASA, but it's still tough to get approval.

Links: Armadillo Aerospace Log Entry [armadilloaerospace.com] and The Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority [state.ok.us]

Re:I was there. The Facts:

[owendelong]

Dr. JJJ -- An N motor is between 20,480.01 and 40,960 newton seconds. Slightly stronger would be something more than that and probably at the low end of the O (40,960.01 - 81,920 newton seconds) range. If I remember correctly, the ML launches with a full N staging to an M. I don't remember the total installed impluse, but I'll ask JP next time I see him.

Re:Liability issues could be enormous

[mesocyclone]

Cape Canaveral launches over water! Range safety destroys the vehicle before it can get over land.

Vandenberg likewise launches over water.

White Sands launches over a military area where they can prohibit entry.

Fort Stockton, OTOH, is landlocked with no place to create a completely safe range.

You guys are about 40 years late with this story

[the eric conspiracy]

Now I am just waiting for the HOW-TO on a Linux-run micro-satellite!

Amateur satellites are nothing new. Hams and AMSAT [amsat.org] have been putting satellites up since the early 60's. Right now they have about 20 operational satellites in orbit. Linux based software is quite popular in the Ham community, and plays a big role in AMSAT operations. Satellite Software [linux.org.au]

The HOW-TO's :

Davidoff, Martin, The Satellite Experimenter's
Handbook Newington, CT: The American
Radio Relay League, 1984.

Jansson, Richard, Spacecraft Technology Trends
in the Amateur Satellite Service, Ogden, UT:
Proceedings of the 1st Annual USU Conference
on Small Satellites, 1987.

bad location!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's stupid to put a space launch facility in Texas. Especially a commercial one.

If you launch from close to the equator, you get a much larger initial velocity, and it's free. Free! You can carry a larger payload or use less fuel with your rocket.

When the French started up Ariannespace, they put it French Guyanna, very close to the equator. Ariannespace has about half of the commerical satellite business.

Re:Legal?

[Meridun]

Correct, yet not as dangerous.

Very few commercial planes travel above Mach 1. In order to get a package into orbit, it has to be going quite a bit faster. For example, geostationary orbit (orbiting once every 24 hours at 22,300 mi altitude/ 35,000 mi from center of earth) requires the satellite to be moving at about 9,000 mph. Given that Mach 1 is about 750 mph, that means that our satellite is traveling above Mach 12.

Frankly, that's the real threat of an ICBM. It's extraordinarily difficult to shoot down something moving at 12 times the speed of sound and your decision time to engage is very small. Therefore, you are correct that Commercial Aviation does have this type of hazard, but I think you'll agree that the magnitude of danger is quite different.

Re:Legal?

[lommer]

Not at all...

The 9,000 mph figure you're quoting is the escape velocity - an instantaneous velocity at the surface of the earth which, without any external acceleration save that of gravity, should theoretically get you into orbit.

However, this is as ridiculously simplistic as it is stupid. In reality, one only has to achieve slightly more than 9.8m/s^2 acceleration and maintain that for the duration of the trip to space. Granted, the shuttle uses a LOT more than just 9.8 m/s^2 acceleration, but it still never reached speeds of 9,000 mph.

Re:bad location!

[lommer]

There's some northern parts of Australia that are fairly close. And Singapore is pretty stable too. Though its infrastucture isn't the best, Malaysia isn't a half-bad option either. India also fits that description too.

Stop Blaming NASA for Everything

[Detritus]

The Eastern Range (Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and Kennedy Space Center) and Western Range (Vandenberg Air Force Base) are run by the U.S. Air Force. They set the safety requirements and have the responsibility for the safe operation of the range.

When you launch a rocket, you have to be able to guarantee that in the event of a malfunction, the rocket will fall in a safe impact area. There are systems that predict the impact point based on the current position and velocity of the launch vehicle. If there is a danger that the current predicted impact point will move outside of the safe impact area, the range safety officer will send a command to the rocket to activate the flight termination system. The flight termination system terminates powered flight by using linear shaped charges to open up fuel/oxidizer tanks and solid rocket motor cases. This guarantees that the rocket, or the pieces of the rocket, will follow a ballistic trajectory and land in the safe impact area.

Re:bad location!

[Da Fokka]

On the equator you'll get about 1500km/h for free, in texas about 1300km/h. The extra 200 km/h might be quite a lot but not compared to the 28.000km/h you'll need to get into orbit. Probably this slight disadvantage will be outweighed by advantages concerning infrastructure and import regulations, as some other posters already pointed out.