Congress

Senator Bingaman and space tourism

An article in Wednesday’s edition of the Alamogordo (NM) Daily News paints US Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) as a supporter of space tourism. “I think you’ll find a lot of people lining up” to participate in suborbital space tourist flights, he was quoted as saying during a visit to Alamogordo earlier in the week. He apparently also showed some interest in lining up federal funding to pay for the development of a commercial spaceport in southern New Mexico, which will eventually host the X Prize Cup competitions:

Eventually a spaceport will be built with the landing pad in Sierra County, [state Economic Development Department executive director Peter] Mitchell told Bingaman, but to do that federal funds are critical. The runway cost alone is $86 million, with another $10 million needed for infrastructure and telemetry technology.

“Is this an avenue you can support?” [space commissioner Dwight] Harp asked Bingaman.

“As far as the money, we can explore it,” said Bingaman, immediately directing his staff to begin investigating possibilities.

4 comments to Senator Bingaman and space tourism

  • Mark Zinthefer

    Can we all at least agree that this is cool?

    As for the money, they should be able to get that much from NASA’s donut budget.

  • Mark R. Whittington

    This development is the mother of all ironies. Bingaman got his Senate seat to start with my beating up on his predecssor, Harrison Schmidt, for paying too much attention to space issues.

  • Jeff Foust

    Bingaman got his Senate seat to start with my beating up on his predecssor, Harrison Schmidt, for paying too much attention to space issues.

    Well, at least you have only yourself to blame: if you had decided not to beat up Schmitt, then perhaps he would have stayed in office longer…

  • Mark R. Whittington

    Very droll, Jeff. Obviously “by” should be substituted for the phrase “with my.” My bad for the typo.