By Rob Coppinger in London
An alliance of US spaceports plans to lobby for a government funding mechanism similar to the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Improvement Programme. The FAA provides US airports with grants worth millions of dollars to fund infrastructure improvements.
The New Mexico state government has held preliminary talks with California-based Mojave Spaceport to create the alliance. The aim is to have a spaceport grant, which needs to be agreed with the FAA, up and running by 2009.
Meanwhile, New Mexico politicians and state officials have been lobbying for $25 million from the federal government to help fund development of the Southwest Regional Spaceport (SWRS). The funds would come from different federal budgets including the Departments of the Interior, Transportation and Defense as well as NASA.
Another potential source of finance could be a sales tax increase, but this would have to be approved by local plebiscite. “We have groups coming together for district referenda,” New Mexico cabinet secretary for economic development Rick Homans told the Royal Aeronautical Society’s space tourism conference in London on 7 June.
Homans said that White Sands Missile Range, which is close to the SWRS site near Las Cruces, is ready to provide its capabilities in areas such as mission control. Meanwhile, the architect for the spaceport, which is expected to be operating in 2009, has been selected and will be announced once the contact is finalised.
The launch customer for SWRS is expected to be Virgin Galactic, but there have been informal talks with Space Adventures. UK company Starchaser Industries wants to conduct commercial launches of its Skybolt sounding rocket from SWRS, and is shifting engine testing and vehicle development to New Mexico with the planned purchase of 50Ha (120 acres) of land over the next three years.
The Cheshire-based company has been testing its 16,500lb-thrust (70kN), pressure-fed, liquid oxygen/kerosene Storm engine at RAF Spadeadam near Carlisle, on a test stand last used for the UK’s Blue Streak rocket project in the 1960s. One Storm will power the Skybolt, while four engines would launch a proposed three-crew capsule.
Starchaser plans to build engine test stands, a vehicle assembly building, astronaut training facility, launch pad and a hotel in New Mexico. “If you talk to people about vehicle assembly buildings they don’t understand, but investors do understand a hotel,” says founder Steve Bennett, who wants to float the company to raise further funding.
Source: Flight International
