"We have a long history of space vehicle construction here and we think this is a good precursor to get the VentureStar," said Palmdale Mayor Jim Ledford, who also noted that Antelope Valley's nickname is "aerospace valley."

Of the 32 possible sites for VentureStar, four are in California, including Harper Lake in San Bernadino Valley, an area in Los Angeles County south of Edwards Air Force Base, Vandenberg Air Force Base and Castle Air Force Base.

Fourteen other states are also competing for the approximately $5 billion project.

The Lockheed Martin Skunk Works facility, which manages Venture Star, will not be making a decision on which site gets the project until 2001, said Gary Grigg, the acting director of communications.

Ledford says that Palmdale's efforts to get the VentureStar include $800,000 in construction for the X-33, which was a joint project between Lockheed Martin and NASA.

Ledford pointed to the history of the region as a key selling point of Antelope Valley. Edwards Air Force Base was home to the original X planes, including the first supersonic plane, the Bell X-1.

"We have a work force that is trained and state-of-the-art facilities...so it makes sense we get the VentureStar," Ledford said.

Bob Johnston, a director of aerospace with the nearby city of Lancaster, is very excited about the economic benefits that could come with the VentureStar.

"We are talking a potential multi-billion dollar industry, which would have a major impact on the economy," Johnston said. "It would not go unnoticed."

Johnston added the valley's geography lends itself to the project's main criteria: safety combined with access to trained personnel.

"We have kind of a mixed bag here," he said. "We are remote enough to avoid a heavy population being affected... and our highway and freeway infrastructure help us."

The VentureStar is designed to reduce costs in space travel by being completely reusable. The vehicle would not use expendable fuel tanks and reusable rocket boosters, as the current NASA space shuttle does. It could replace the space shuttle in the future.

Haystack Butte on Edwards Air Force Base already hosts the X-33 prototype. The delta-shaped craft is one-half the size, one-ninth the weight and one-fourth the cost of the VentureStar vehicle. Its primary purpose is to give Lockheed Martin a way to predict how the much larger VentureStar will perform under similar circumstances.

The Haystack site is 40 miles northeast of the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, CA. A series of test flights for the X-33 are planned for summer of 2000 at the $32 million flight operations center built on Edwards Air Force Base just for the X-33. The corporation is working with NASA on the X-33, but the VentureStar will be built without government funding.

Lockheed may choose two sites eventually because there will be three or four VentureStar vehicles built, spokesman Grigg said, making a second site economically feasible.

If a second site is chosen, it is not clear if it will be chosen at the same time as the first.

"The robustness of the industry in the area is certainly a factor," Grigg said of California's strengths of their bid. "The weather is also generally good."

Grigg stressed that the competitive phase of the site selection process has not really begun, as information is still being collected on all of the possible choices. Lockheed Martin plans to operate the VentureStar as a space transport service if the decision is made to go beyond the X-33 prototype.