The Daytona Beach News-Journal and Orlando Sentinel have have thrown their editorial weight behind citizens who are opposed to building a new commercial launch facility in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge at the Kennedy Space Center.
About 200 residents spoke out against the idea during a recent public hearing. The refuge site is one of several locations being considered. Residents suggested that the new facility be built on a nearby Air Force site that already hosts abandoned launch pads.
“Considering that some 1 million visitors a year trek into the refuge — birders, boaters, fishermen, hunters and hikers by the droves — one would think officials might have measured the potential economic blow to tourism and related loss of jobs from closing parts of the refuge against the 200 jobs and economic prospects of commercial space flight. NASA hasn’t. Interior Department and state officials should,” the Dayton editors wrote.
The Orlando Sentinel editors were a bit more blunt: “What part of the word ‘refuge’ doesn’t NASA understand?”
Meanwhile, Sentinel columnist Mike Thomas credits NASA for holding public hearings and doubts agency officials will build anything in the wildlife refuge. “If anything, it seems as if they are sabotaging the idea,” he wrote.
SpaceX has slipped the first launch of its Falcon 9 vehicle by nine months to June, 2009, according to Florida Today.
The El Segundo, Calif.-based company headed by Internet billionaire Elon Musk is receiving $278 million from NASA to launch three vehicles under its COTS program. COTS is designed to help develop commercial alternatives for cargo and crew delivery to the International Space Station.
Flight Global also has a story that includes comments from Musk blaming the delays on a shift in launch sites from a small Pacific atoll to Cape Canaveral and the “enormous amount of work” required to build a new rocket.
Meanwhile, SpaceX says it has completed qualification testing of its Merlin regeneratively cooled engine for its smaller Falcon 1 rocket, which is scheduled for Spring 2008. Two previous launch attempts of the missile failed.
Florida Today questions the feasibility of a commercial spaceport at Kennedy Space Center in the wake of public hearings where residents spoke against its possible location in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. The newspaper wonders whether the project is financially feasible and whether it would have a detrimental impact on tourism and the environment. “[Residents] also offered a good suggestion: Consider building the complex at abandoned launch sites at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station,” the paper writes.
An eclectic group of residents composed of birders, boaters, nudists and former NASA employees pleaded with the space agency not to build private launchpads near a world-renowned wildlife refuge, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
“That you would even consider it boggles my mind,” Wes Biggs of Orlando told NASA representatives during a public hearing. “The Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge isn’t just another refuge. It’s one of the jewels of the federal wildlife system, and it is known worldwide.”
NASA wants commercial companies to build new launch facilities at Kennedy Space Center. It is considering several possible locations. Residents urged agency officials to make use of an abandoned Air Force range for the project. However, agency officials said it would be difficult to obtain the land from the military.
Florida Today also has a story about the public hearing.
Space Florida Press Release
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (Feb. 20, 2008) – Space Florida is actively engaged with dozens of commercial space companies who have expressed an interest in expanding existing operations, or bringing new business to Florida, and state officials are confident in their ability to support these entrepreneurial ventures.
Continue reading ‘Space Florida Actively Engaged in Growing State’s Aerospace Economy’
Kennedy Space Center’s proposed commercial launch facility has generated some concern among one group - local fishermen, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal.
The fishermen are worried that a new launch complex would permanently close Mosquito Lagoon south from Haulover Canal. The fishing spot is known sas the Redfish Capital of the World.
NASA officials say they are considering two sites, one of which is near Mosquito Lagoon. They will be holding a series of public hearings to obtain input from the public.
Science fiction writer Ben Bova has a commentary in the Naples Daily News in which he calls for an overhaul of existing space law in order to encourage private ownership of extraterrestrial resources. He blames outdated laws for blocking space settlement, including that 1967 Outer Space Treaty.
And the winner is….Orbital Science Corporation. NASA awarded the Dulles, Virginia-based company $171 million under its COTS program to build and demonstrate a launch system capable of delivering cargo to the international space station.
The COTS program is designed stimulating private development for vehicles capable of transporting cargo and crews to ISS. Orbital Sciences joins SpaceX of El Segundo, California, which is also developing a rocket and vehicle under COTS.
The three-year agreement calls for the development of:
- Taurus II, a new medium-class launch vehicle
- Cygnus, an advanced maneuvering spacecraft
- Several interchangeable modules for pressurized and unpressurized cargo.
NASA awarded the funding after ending a similar agreement with Rocketplane Kistler. The Oklahoma-based company failed to come up with a half billion dollar in private funding to supplement its NASA award.
There had been a lot of media coverage. Below is a sampling of useful links:
NASA awards grant for cargo spaceship: MSNBC (via Brian Berger, Space.com)
Orbital Will Develop Craft With NASA: Associate Press via Forbes
NASA backs private firm to help supply space station: Houston Chronicle
Orbital Sciences COTS Homepage (with illustrations)
NASA Partners With Orbital Sciences for Space Transport Services: NASA Press Release via PR News Wire
One of the unsuccessful bidders was Chicago-based PlanetSpace, which had been hoping to use the money to jump start efforts to build a commercial spaceport on Cape Breton in Nova Scotia. Canadian Press has an update.
Space Frontier Foundation Co-founders James Muncy and Bob Werb have praised a recent NASA-Zero Gravity Corp. deal as “a true hallelujah moment for the NewSpace industry” in a Space News op-ed piece.
NASA recently agreed to buy up to $25.4 million in commercial parabolic flight services from the private company. The space agency usually flies its own parabolic flights, which are used to train astronauts in a micro-gravity environment.
“This announcement is a strong positive signal to the NewSpace companies trying to develop Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) systems and other capabilities that NASA needs. Up until now, many of us could - and regularly did - say to NASA: ‘How can you expect industry to raise tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to develop a service on the promise that NASA will buy, when it won’t even buy an existing commercial parabolic flight service from Zero Gravity Corp.?’” they wrote.
Over at Hobby Space, Clark S. Lindsey reviews progress during the last year in commercial space activity and lays out what he believes is a believable timeline for the next dozen years. It’s a good review of current activities and challenges as well as future plans, so it’s worth a look.