Comments on: The future of Spaceport America may be in the hands of the New Mexico Legislature http://www.spacepolitics.com/2013/01/18/the-future-of-spaceport-america-may-be-in-the-hands-of-the-new-mexico-legislature/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-future-of-spaceport-america-may-be-in-the-hands-of-the-new-mexico-legislature Because sometimes the most important orbit is the Beltway... Wed, 17 Sep 2014 13:35:41 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.38 By: Geoff http://www.spacepolitics.com/2013/01/18/the-future-of-spaceport-america-may-be-in-the-hands-of-the-new-mexico-legislature/#comment-761582 Mon, 08 Sep 2014 01:03:39 +0000 http://www.spacepolitics.com/?p=6163#comment-761582 I contacted the spaceport last year to investigate the possibility of landing a single engine plane there. The spaceport folks claimed that they were not ready to land any kind of aircraft…….no wind sock, litter all over the runway (FOD), no one in a control tower, etc.

Many landing fields in NM are not manned; you eyeball the strip and put down without any guidance other than automated info; wind speed, direction, etc.

I suspect that the good people of NM have been sold another Richardson initiative. Conducting space launches and landings was the apparent goal. Currently, they can’t handle an old retired guy in a Cessna. As a result, and an estimated two billion bucks later, I am not optomistic. Appears more like a Federal than a state project. Our tax dollars, derived in a very poor state, at work…..

]]> By: WILLIAM http://www.spacepolitics.com/2013/01/18/the-future-of-spaceport-america-may-be-in-the-hands-of-the-new-mexico-legislature/#comment-411727 Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:26:36 +0000 http://www.spacepolitics.com/?p=6163#comment-411727 I WAS OFFERED A JOB WORKING FOR THE SPACE PORT WHILE WORKING
IN TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES NEW MEXICO (2009).I HAD ONE QUESTION
BEFORE ACCEPTING THE JOB.IN THE EVENT OF DEATH OR DESTRUCTION,
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE? EXAMPLE:A FARM ANIMAL,BARN,TRACTOR OR GOD
HELP,A FARMER.TRY AND GET A “LAYMAN’S” ANSWER.UNTIL THAT HAPPENS,AND THE FARMERS ARE SATISFIED,THE SPACEPORT IS A HANDED
DOWN HEADACHE.THANK YOU BILL RICHARDSON,WHO BY THE WAY HANGS OUT WITH BRANSON IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA,WHILE SPONGING TAX DOLLARS THAT SEEM TO NOT BOTHER ANYONE. OBVIOUSLY I DIDN’T GET THE JOB,THE OFFICE CLOSED AND THE MANAGER,JOHN MULCAHEY BECAME MAYOR.THE ONLY THING (IN 30YR) THAT HAS CHANGED IN T OR C IS
CARRIE TINGLEY HOSPITAL IS NOW A VETERANS HOME.BOTH OF WHICH
WERE POSITIVE MOVES

]]> By: Rick Boozer http://www.spacepolitics.com/2013/01/18/the-future-of-spaceport-america-may-be-in-the-hands-of-the-new-mexico-legislature/#comment-394932 Sun, 27 Jan 2013 15:33:24 +0000 http://www.spacepolitics.com/?p=6163#comment-394932 Except for the fact that both you and ablastofhotair don’t consider the lowering of launch costs to be a significan advancement, when in reality it is the most significant advancement that will allow progress. It’s gets really funny when the two most clueless laughing stocks of this forum join in the same chorus. :)

]]> By: Chris Castro http://www.spacepolitics.com/2013/01/18/the-future-of-spaceport-america-may-be-in-the-hands-of-the-new-mexico-legislature/#comment-394928 Sun, 27 Jan 2013 13:17:34 +0000 http://www.spacepolitics.com/?p=6163#comment-394928 Totally agreed! This “to-take-humanity-to-Mars” slogan, has been overused & overstated!! Worse, it has become a hazy distraction! SPACE-X AIN’T GOING ANYWHERE NEAR MARS! Although, when they become capable of landing a small crew on the Moon, and stay on the surface for at least four full days, and conduct extensive scientific work with a roving vehicle; THEN maybe I will half-way believe them! But the way these things stand, the way these entrepreneurs brag & boast about ONLY doing the most sensational thing they could think of: it DOESN’T bode well for the future. Muskee still has to prove the viability of making a profit, “repeating” Gemini & Skylab. (Hey guys, I thought we never were supposed to “repeat” past space goals…ever?!)

]]> By: Rick Boozer http://www.spacepolitics.com/2013/01/18/the-future-of-spaceport-america-may-be-in-the-hands-of-the-new-mexico-legislature/#comment-394682 Sat, 26 Jan 2013 15:11:28 +0000 http://www.spacepolitics.com/?p=6163#comment-394682 “To hell with all this loitering in LEO, & ISS maintainance! Space station operations DON’T freaking impress me!”
Yep, you want to hop to the end result without going through the necessary intervening steps, even though NASA’s funding will never be increased to the amount necessary to redo Apollo.

In short, it’s against your irrational religion, Tinkerbell. Keep throwing your tantrums, it won’t change a thing.

]]> By: Chris Castro http://www.spacepolitics.com/2013/01/18/the-future-of-spaceport-america-may-be-in-the-hands-of-the-new-mexico-legislature/#comment-394615 Sat, 26 Jan 2013 06:32:51 +0000 http://www.spacepolitics.com/?p=6163#comment-394615 Yeah, it IS amazing just how many differing designs were submitted & proposed for the Shuttle, back in those days. The compromises on safety & probable mission accomplishment goals began and grinded on, till we eventualy got the dangerous & overbloated & limited-to-nothing-but-LEO vehicle that would dominate American spaceflight for over thirty years. The Obama White House has already made the giant mistake of downsizing our formerly grand space goals, and reducing them to just taxi/truck services to the ISS. We’ll get Commercial Crew vehicles incapable of doing anything else but LEO missions. Then America gets stranded in LEO for another fifteen or twenty years, by the time anyone takes notice.

]]> By: Chris Castro http://www.spacepolitics.com/2013/01/18/the-future-of-spaceport-america-may-be-in-the-hands-of-the-new-mexico-legislature/#comment-394614 Sat, 26 Jan 2013 06:19:35 +0000 http://www.spacepolitics.com/?p=6163#comment-394614 Sorry to respond to your post this one more time. I DID look up the informational engineering study links that you emplaced to your comment. I of course, have zero, zilch, nada, interest in an astronaut mission to an NEO, as well as none whatsoever in crewed missions to Mars WITHOUT a Lunar return first. This Flexible Path thing has devastated the entire quest for space, in my view! There is NO rational reason for sending crewmen to the Red Planet, without first testing the mission elements on Moon missions as a start! Plus, there is nothing worthwhile to do at an NEO, with astronauts! At least not in any decade soon. Flexible Path is a distracting, convoluted, false map that leads to nowhere! Hence, I only had enthusiasm for the proposed manned Moon journeys. But even here, there is a big asterisk I would put in, because the Golden Spike scheme relies heavily on commercial space. I have a strong distaste for this commercial/entrepreneur approach to spaceflight! I do NOT trust in their ability to deliver on such grandiose promises—-grandiose, meaning deep space/cislunar/& lunar operations. To hell with all this loitering in LEO, & ISS maintainance! Space station operations DON’T freaking impress me!

]]> By: vulture4 http://www.spacepolitics.com/2013/01/18/the-future-of-spaceport-america-may-be-in-the-hands-of-the-new-mexico-legislature/#comment-394393 Fri, 25 Jan 2013 12:01:34 +0000 http://www.spacepolitics.com/?p=6163#comment-394393 The Virgin job announcement is intresting, emphasizing a SpaceX-like “clean sheet” liquid rocket engine design rather than adopting a design from another manufacturer as they did with the hybrid engine. The fuels are not mentioned. After SpaceX and Xcor, they will be the third vehicle manufacturer making their own liquid fueled engines de novo. (Xcor is SFAIK building its own engine but not its wings and aero surfaces).

]]> By: Rick Boozer http://www.spacepolitics.com/2013/01/18/the-future-of-spaceport-america-may-be-in-the-hands-of-the-new-mexico-legislature/#comment-394109 Thu, 24 Jan 2013 12:40:05 +0000 http://www.spacepolitics.com/?p=6163#comment-394109 @Chris
“IT IS STILL WORTH DOING AS A SPACE GOAL.”
Yes, indeed, it is. And that will never happen as long as there are people with your mindset in key positions that keep fighting the development of the building blocks needed to pursue that goal. As long as that is the case, “true deep-space space-faring will never get past the dreamy, hazy, fantasy-on-an-animated graphics-film stage.” People who think like you are the main obstacle to that future. You’re like a little child pitching a tantrum for something that he can only have after he grows up. “I want my lunar mission, and I want it now!“ :)

]]> By: Chris Castro http://www.spacepolitics.com/2013/01/18/the-future-of-spaceport-america-may-be-in-the-hands-of-the-new-mexico-legislature/#comment-394075 Thu, 24 Jan 2013 09:28:45 +0000 http://www.spacepolitics.com/?p=6163#comment-394075 @Rick Boozer;….You actually accentuate my point with that counter-mocking remark. Obama & the Flexible Path people have flaming contempt for American astronauts ever going back to the Moon, because “we’ve already been there”; but just look at all the REPEAT ACTS that NASA will be called to do, countless times & times again! If repeats of past acheivements are never done, the future then remains on hold, and true deep-space space-faring will never get past the dreamy, hazy, fantasy-on-an-animated graphics-film stage. Because then we are unwilling to recreate what was done in the past, to expand & build further upon it. A manned Lunar Return will explore the Moon with a much greater scope, & with much better capabilities, than was accomplished forty years ago. IT IS STILL WORTH DOING AS A SPACE GOAL.

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