Building a better spaceport

Starchaser Industries Inc. set up business in New Mexico over a year ago, qualifying it as the first private space firm to locate to the region. The group’s U.S. operations are being run from offices in Las Cruces.

"We are very pleased to be here" said Steve Bennett, Chief Executive Officer for Starchaser Industries. "The 4,000 foot elevation, great weather and close proximity to the restricted airspace controlled by the White Sands Missile Range make for an ideal launch area," he told SPACE.com.

Starchaser has taken on their first local employees, Bennett added, hiring in the fields of management, educational outreach and sales. They are now on the lookout for people to fill various engineering slots.

The rocket company is also evaluating land options in Southern New Mexico with a view to building a research and development and launch vehicle manufacturing plant, he said.

Starchaser Industries is busy at work on two major engineering efforts, dubbed Skybolt and Thunderstar.

Skybolt is a low-cost reusable liquid propellant sounding rocket. Its liquid oxygen/kerosene propulsion system is designated STORM and will be test fired in March from a military establishment in Northern England prior to all up, full duration static firings that will take place in New Mexico.

Skybolt is to launch reentry bodies to gain data for the Thunderstar project. It is also on tap to fly a number of related systems in support of Starchaser’s overall space tourism initiative. The first Skybolt rocket is scheduled for launch out of the New Mexico spaceport in early 2007.

Bennett said the relatively low acceleration of the Skybolt system makes it ideal for lofting delicate payloads, like crystal growth experiments, that could not normally be flown on a traditional sounding rocket.

The Thunderstar rocket, Bennett explained, will be tasked to launch tourists into space along a ballistic trajectory. A fleet of four Thunderstar-class vehicles are to be built, each having a seating capacity for two crewmembers and up to six fare-paying passengers. Flights will be priced at around $160,000 and could commence as early as 2008, Bennett said.

Money, money, money
While it’s obvious that picking the place to plant a spaceport in New Mexico is a matter of location, location, location ... it’s also an issue of first things first. And that means money, money, money.

Last week, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson presented his State of the State address to New Mexicans.

Richardson spotlighted the still-to-be-okayed spaceport to his fellow lawmakers: "We will continue to build strong economic momentum — like the cutting-edge agreement the State negotiated with Virgin Galactic to build the world’s first spaceport for commercial space flight."

The spaceport is a promising endeavor for New Mexico, Richardson reported, with a projected long-term economic impact of $752 million dollars and nearly 5,800 jobs.

That aside, future projections are one thing ... up front money is another.

"All of our effort right now is focused on securing the funding to build the spaceport," said New Mexico Economic Development Secretary Rick Homans, also Chairman of the New Mexico Spaceport Authority. "Starchaser, UP Aerospace, Virgin Galactic, Rocket Racing ... won’t be able to do business in New Mexico unless we have a spaceport," he told SPACE.com.

Homans said that New Mexico legislators are coming to grips with the investment of $225 million for New Mexico’s commercial spaceport. A legislative session is now underway, one that could shake loose $135 million of state money to kick-start spaceport construction.

Given that funding, a request for proposals would be issued for spaceport architecture and engineering services by the end of February or early March, Homans said. In early July the selected firm would be under contract, he said, and they would develop the construction bid to be issued first quarter of 2007.

"That would coincide perfectly with the timing of our license review and approval by the FAA. If all goes well, we hope to have that process completed by the end of 2006," Homans said. "We can’t do anything permanent and begin any spaceport construction until we’ve completed our environmental impact statement ... which leads to the issuance of the license from the FAA."

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