Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. Space Industry and Business News .




SPACE TRAVEL
American Spaceports
by Staff Writers
Bethesda MD (SPX) Aug 12, 2014


File image.

Most people are not aware that the world is awash with spaceports. However, the popular ones are well-known. For example, the Cape Canaveral Area of Florida is the home of the most famous launch facilities. Both NASA and the US Air Force have launch pads and complex support infrastructures at the NASA's Kennedy Space Center and at the adjacent Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on the Sunshine State's east coast.

This is also the home of Launch Pad 39A, from which NASA launched Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing. It is also the pad from which Atlantis left Earth to fly the last space shuttle mission. This site is now open to the public for tours.

The U.S. also hosts launch sites at Vandenberg Air force Base in California, Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia and the Kodiak Launch Complex in Alaska. In addition, there are several other sites that are developed or in the process of being established for use in suborbital and orbital launches.

There is also the mid-Pacific Ocean launch site used by Sea Launch. Although this is not on U.S. territory, it is governed under U.S. launch regulations due to the fact that it is based in Long Beach, California.

The latest addition to the list of potential U.S. spaceports is Brownsville, Texas. Just last week, the State of Texas and SpaceX announced that the rocket company plans to build a spaceport in South Texas. In a recent news release Gov. Rick Perry said, "Texas has been on the forefront of our nation's space exploration efforts for decades, so it is fitting that SpaceX has chosen our state as they expand the frontiers of commercial space flight."

To sweeten the opportunity for SpaceX, Texas is offering $2.3 million from its Enterprise Fund, and the state is offering $13 million from the Spaceport Trust Fund to the Cameron County Spaceport Development Corp. to support the development of necessary spaceport infrastructure.

SpaceX has indicated that this new launch site will be able to support up to 12 space launches a year, including two Falcon Heavy vehicles. Operations may commence as early as 2015. With access to easterly launches, this site will work well for low inclination and geostationary satellites.

Texas is not generally thought of as a space launch state, but once upon a time it was very seriously thought of as a primary Space Shuttle launch complex location. In fact, the 1970s the location under consideration was only about 230 miles from Brownsville, at Matagorda. At that time Matagorda was a sleepy little beach town on the Gulf Coast, roughly 100 miles southwest of Houston.

NASA had considered a number of sites around the contiguous 48 states. A primary factor in the selection process was safety, thus, prohibiting the shuttle from launching over populated areas.

This limitation effectively ruled out any location not near a large body of water. This left only west coast, east coast and gulf coast locations. Further considerations with regard to population centers along most of the coastal areas resulted in a short list of only five locations: Cape Canaveral (coastal Florida), Vandenberg Air Force Base (coastal California), the Chesapeake region in Virginia, coastal North Carolina or South Carolina and Matagorda, Texas.

Finally, North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia were ruled out because areas near potential launch sites were too populated. It would have been too expensive to buy enough land to create a safe launch complex for the shuttle in one of these states. That left Matagorda, Vandenberg and Cape Canaveral.

Matagorda actually offered a few advantages over Vandenberg and the Cape. The Canaveral area could be used for easterly launches, but not polar launches. Vandenberg could be used for polar launches, but not for launches towards the east.

Matagorda could be used for either type of launch. However, a NASA cost analysis concluded that it would still be more cost-effective to enhance both Vandenberg and Cape Canaveral for space shuttle launches than to build an entirely new launch site in rural Texas. As it turned out, the Vandenberg facilities for shuttle were never completed and the Kennedy Space Center became the only shuttle launch site.

.


Related Links
LAUNCHSPACE
Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








SPACE TRAVEL
Captains of industry explore space's new frontiers
Paris (AFP) Aug 03, 2014
With spacecraft that can carry tourists into orbit and connect Paris to New York in less than two hours, the new heroes of space travel are not astronauts but daring captains of industry. This new breed of space pioneers are all using private money to push the final frontier as government space programmes fall away. Times have changed. Once the space race was led by the likes of the US ... read more


SPACE TRAVEL
BAE Systems touts its Artisan radar system

Association of satellite operators joins program for space safety

USN Moderates CubeSat RF Communications Standards Meeting

IT outsourcing boom boosts struggling Bulgaria

SPACE TRAVEL
Communications system used in Afghanistan gets Northrop support

Fourth MUOS Communication Satellite Clears Launch-Simulation Test

US looks to Japan space program to close Pacific communications gap

U.S. government using commercial Inmarsat 5 satellite

SPACE TRAVEL
ATK Passes Critical Design Review for NASA's Space Launch System Booster

Russia to Decide on Future of Sea Launch Project by End of 2014

SpaceX launches AsiaSat8 into orbit via Falcon 9 rocket

United Launch Alliance Launches Two Rockets in Just Four Days

SPACE TRAVEL
Galileo's initial two Full Operational Capability satellites are fueled for launch

Boeing GPS IIF satellite launched by Air Force

GPS-guided shell in full-rate production

Targeting device that helps reduce collateral damage tested by the Army

SPACE TRAVEL
Japan to test first homegrown stealth fighter jet: report

Airports plant prairie grass to prevent bird strikes

Asia's richest man targets aviation and Irish firm AWAS

The evolution of airplanes

SPACE TRAVEL
Diamonds are a Quantum Computer's Best Friend

SyNAPSE Program Develops Advanced Brain-Inspired Chip

Tiny chip mimics brain, delivers supercomputer speed

On-chip topological light

SPACE TRAVEL
Study of Aerosols Stands to Improve Climate Models

NASA's IceCube No Longer On Ice

New NASA Studies to Examine Climate/Vegetation Links

Quiet Year Expected for Amazon Forest Fires in 2014

SPACE TRAVEL
Physicists create water tractor beam

Chemical leak at Mexican mine fouls water supply

The immediate aftermath of an oil spill

Toxic mine leak turns Mexico river orange




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.