April 25, 2014 | Updated: April 25, 2014 10:14pm
SpaceX chief executive Elon Musk on Friday said his company intends to build a launchpad near Brownsville, a significant development that could signal the start of a renaissance in Texas spaceflight as manned activity at the Johnson Space Center has ebbed.
At the end of an unrelated news conference in Washington, Musk said his company expects to begin launching its rockets from a pad at Boca Chica Beach on the south coast of Texas.
"We'll probably have that site active in a couple of years," he added.
All the company is waiting for, Musk said, is the completion of an environmental impact study by the Federal Aviation Administration, which should come in the next month or two. An official announcement is unlikely until this summer.
Texas had been considered a front-runner for the eight-acre spaceport, from which the company would launch up to 12 rockets a year, but Musk's comments are the clearest sign yet of the company's intentions.
Although Brownsville officials were not taking anything for granted, they acknowledged the area's long wait for a potentially game-changing economic project may soon come to an end.
"There is no spaceport project in Brownsville - yet," said Gilberto Salinas, executive vice president of the Brownsville Economic Development Council.
If the Brownsville launchpad is built, it could be part of a new generation of spaceflight in Texas.
Another private company, Sierra Nevada Corp., recently announced that it is exploring the possibility of landing its space plane, the Dream Chaser, at Ellington Field in the Clear Lake area. The Dream Chaser, which looks something like a smaller version of the space shuttle, will have the capacity to ferry seven people to orbit.
A third company, XCOR Aerospace, moved its research and development operations from California to Midland and is seeking to obtain a spaceport license in Midland to launch its suborbital spacecraft, the Lynx, from the airport there.
"It will be the first spaceport at an airport that also has commercial air service," said XCOR's founder, Jeff Greason, in an interview earlier this year. "Because of that, there are many issues to work through for the first time."
The comments made Friday by Musk suggest Texas will have a significant launch capability to low-Earth orbit and beyond, said David Alexander, director of the Rice Space Institute, which has been working to develop commercial space in Texas.
"This shows that the state is serious about advancing the commercial space industry," Alexander said. "With SpaceX active in Brownsville, Sierra Nevada potentially landing their Dream Chaser in Houston, and XCOR launching from Midland, there is the development of a significant space infrastructure across the state.
"When you combine this with the power and prestige of Johnson Space Center, its contractor community and the growing commercial space sector in the state, Texas is rapidly becoming a center for the new space ecosystem."
Another Space City?
Houston remains an important player, but federal spaceflight funding has decreased with the retirement of the space shuttle.
Notably, the potential spaceflight deals move Texas from being a player in the training of astronauts and design of missions to the actual launching of spacecraft and payloads. Historically, this has been almost solely the domain of Florida.
The SpaceX deal will not be completed until the FAA issues its final decision on the environmental study of the spaceport's effect on the wetlands and wildlife in South Texas, just a few miles north of the Texas-Mexico border. The area is largely surrounded by U.S. Fish and Wildlife land.
The FAA's report should be complete within a few weeks or a month, said Salinas. It would be followed by a 30-day comment period and then a final decision.
"We're hopeful that SpaceX will make a decision shortly thereafter," Salinas said. "This is what we consider, in this field, a game-changer. It could literally change the face of this region. There are only two cities considered Space City USA; one is in Florida and one is Houston. If Brownsville could be in that class, it would be a pretty elite club to be in."
SpaceX offers more than just rocket launches. Musk, its chief executive, is a rock star among rocket fans because of how his company is lowering the cost of rockets. Its launches likely would draw tens of thousands of people to South Texas for the spectacle. Some launches, out over the Gulf of Mexico, probably would also be visible from Houston.
SpaceX's Falcon 9 already delivers cargo to the International Space Station for a fraction of what NASA could provide the service for, and SpaceX is trying to reduce costs further by making its launch rockets reusable.
Legislative incentives
The company also is trying to develop a version of the Falcon 9 in the "heavy lift" class that could launch more than 50 metric tons of payload to orbit. The companyplans two such launches per year from the Brownsville site.
From the standpoint of launching to orbit, locations near the equator are preferable, as is launching over water for safety reasons.
For several years, the "competition" for the SpaceX spaceport has included locations in Florida, Georgia, Puerto Rico and other locations. But Musk in recent years has expressed a preference for Texas because of the favorable Boca Chica site and because it already has a rocket-testing facility in Central Texas, near Waco.
Then, during the 2013 legislative session, lawmakers and the governor put together a package of legislation and financial incentives for the company.
The Legislature passed a bill that allows for the temporary closure of Boca Chica Beach for rocket launches. It approved a second bill that expanded liability protections for rocket testing and launching.
Legislators also set aside a $15 million contingency fund during the next two years that could fund public spaceport infrastructure.
Other cities considering spaceports, including Houston, would be eligible to bid for these funds as well.
"The state has done a great job in supporting the project, and now we're just waiting for the FAA to wrap up their study," Salinas said. "We think it's almost here."
Source : http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/nation-world/article/SpaceX-intends-to-build-Texas-spaceport-5430766.php
