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Looks like a battle brewing over future use of the Mojave Spaceport, home site for development of the suborbital SpaceShipTwo and other private space ventures.
According to Bill Deaver, editor/publisher of the Mojave Desert News, an above the fold story in his paper is reporting that Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) bureaucracy threatens the Mojave Air and Space Port.
At the heart of the issue are requests for information apparently due to two explosions at the airport earlier this year. One of those involved propulsion/fueling equipment for the SpaceShipTwo program under development by Scaled Composites. That accident in July claimed the lives of workers on the project.
The newspaper reports that Stuart Witt, General Manager of the Mojave Air and Space Port, has stated the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) has threatened to suspend or revoke their spaceport license.
AST officials want information on fuels to be used in space vehicles currently under development at the spaceport, along with information on how far away the materials must be stored from other airport activities.
Another AST demand, the newspaper also reports, centered on how local space operations would comply with national fire code rules. However, according to Witt, the newspaper states, information on fuels is not available as rocket groups at the spaceport are not that far along on their current design and development process.
“I think it’s time for us to make a trip to Washington to meet with members of Congress,” the newspaper quotes Witt as saying.
Sure to be more coming in the days to come on this spaceport situation.
December 6th, 2007 at 9:11 am
Space exploration is an intrinsically dangerous affair. Whenever you mix energetic chemicals with equipment tasked with operating at conditions that are close to their material limits, this is a recipe of risk. Minimizing this risk to be reasonable and acceptable is one of the primary tasks of the space engineer–often, however, this knowledge is usually gained through experience. And experience is gained from making mistakes. Mistakes, sadly, are often paid for in blood.
That is just the way it is.
We learn nothing by not trying–so we must move forward anyway. Life is not without risk–so we must learn from our mistakes; plan better; take only reasonable risks; and pray…
The awful loss of life at the Mojave Spaceport illustrates this all too well–but the losses will have been in vain if they give it up. Scaled Composites shouldn’t do that!