Spaceport Development Picks Up Steam In Texas 116
RocketAcademy writes "The Lone Star State is moving to become a leader in spaceport development.
The Houston Airport System is officially moving ahead with plans to turn Ellington Airport, near NASA's Johnson Space Center, into an FAA-licensed commercial spaceport. The airport system has completed a feasibility study for turning the field into a spaceport for suborbital spacecraft such as Virgin Galactic's SpaceShip Two and XCOR's Lynx. In the longer term, spacecraft could link Houston to Singapore in as little as three hours, according to airport system director Mario Diaz.
Meanwhile, state Representative Rene Oliveira (D-Brownsville) introduced a bill that would allow county commissioners to close a local beach for launches from the proposed SpaceX launch site in Cameron County. The bill is part of a flood of spaceport-related legislation that has been introduced recently in the Texas legislature."
Re:Now you can leave Texas at Mach 10. (Score:4, Insightful)
Which explains why the state recently gained additional seats in the House of Representatives. It's growth rate is outpacing the national average by a decent amount since people are moving into it at a pretty rapid rate. And, honestly, having moved here a little over a decade ago, I can see why. Sure, there's some truth to the various stereotypes, but having lived for roughly equal amounts of time in California, Florida, and Texas, I'd pick Texas over the other two any day. The people are nicer, you get a LOT more bang for your buck in the housing market, and there's high demand for folks with the sorts of skills the commenters here at Slashdot have. You'll deal with crazy people anywhere you go, but at least the Texas crazies are pleasant enough to be around.
Re:Cronyism at its finest (Score:5, Insightful)
Indeed! How can they possibly justify suggesting that a large-ish military/NASA airport within spitting distance of Johnson Space Center be used as a spaceport?! Why, next thing you know, they'll try and pass it off as common sense. One person I met had the gall to suggest that because Houston is one of the largest urban centers in the nation, is within a short driving distance of 3 of the top 5 seaports in the nation (which might make transporting parts for these craft easier), and has a high concentration of individuals connected to the space industry, it makes sense to put a starport there. How dare there! Harumph.