 |
|
 |
 advertisement
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Virginia Space Flight Center (VSFC) wants to make space launches as routine as air travel.
By James Schultz
Special to SPACE.com
posted: 06:33 pm ET
21 August 2000
|
spaceport_virginia_000818 Check the calendar: nearly 2001, and no permanent moon colonies. No daily rocket launches. No space mining. No eager tourists swarming to orbiting resorts. Yes, theres a space station, but barely begun, behind schedule and ultimately home to a select handful of scientists and specialists. If youre an average citizen, the closest youll get to a hard vacuum is during weekend rug cleaning. So why is Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority executive director Billie Reed so upbeat? Maybe its because hes a proud papa. The spaceport he oversees, on Wallops Island on Virginias Eastern Shore, is a relative infant, licensed in 1997 and one of only four such land-based commercial launch sites in the United States. A fifth, U.S.-based facility has a Federal Aviation Administration license to launch from a floating platform in the Pacific Ocean. 
Launch Pad 0A at the Virginia Space Flight Center, in partnership with NASA, currently supports vehicles with payload capacities of up to 2,500 pounds (1,135 kilograms) .The Virginia Space Flight Center (VSFC) bills itself as a one-stop shop for commercial space customers, offering a full complement of launch-range services including safety monitoring; telemetry; radar tracking; command, control and communications; and data retrieval and processing. Two launch pads can accommodate small-to-medium-size boosters, with payloads up to 10,000 pounds (454 kilograms). Like any doting parent, Reed has high hopes for his offspring. "Weve shifted to the Field of Dreams phase. Weve built it and expect that they will come," Reed said. "We started in business looking to the smallsat, low-Earth-orbit markets --- primarily communications and remote-sensing satellites. That was our mission and our business plan." Modifying the plan Trouble is, the smallsat market has virtually collapsed. A planned constellation of Iridium satellites, intended to provide constant, global access to telephony was scrapped -- a victim of terrestrial technology in the form of cell-phone advances. Given the risk and cost of the to-space business, funders have been reluctant to underwrite other, similar undertakings. ~ Another ambitious project, the VentureStar spaceplane, is languishing, plagued by cracks in the pair of lightweight composite-materials tanks that will feed liquid-hydrogen fuel to the reusable crafts aerospike engines. Test flights of a half-scale prototype, the X-33, planned for this summer, have been delayed to at least 2002. Should VentureStar succeed, it will need a spaceport home: Wallops is among those vying for the privilege. "Reusable launch vehicles, RLVs, will happen, whether its VentureStar or some other name, "Reed said. "Its not a matter of if. Its a matter of when." Underwriting the upstarts So whats a spaceport to do in the meantime? According to Reed, the logical move is to support upstart rocket companies that want to dramatically slash the cost of orbiting payloads. The VSFC has helped out maybe a half-dozen of these maverick entrepreneurs for free, providing engineering tips on what will and won't work. 
"We've shifted to the Field of Dreams phase. We've built it and expect that they will come."
Judging from Wallops Island history, the effort could pay off. It was here that the American piloted space program was conceived and essentially perfected by scientists and engineers, working in the late 1940s and through the 1950s. Sometimes living out of tents pitched yards (meters) from the Atlantic, the researchers battled hordes of mosquitoes and their own failures to create Americas piloted space program (en-masse transfer to Houston would take place in the early 1960s). Their success and reward came with the Mercury and Gemini missions, followed by the Apollo moon landings Wallops has history, ingenuity and infrastructure. All it needs now are customers. "[The] Virginia [spaceport] is still anxiously looking for business," said Patricia Grace Smith, the Federal Aviation Administrations associate administrator for commercial space transportation. "Were supportive of the entire commercial spaceport industry, Virginia included. Were hoping Virginia will be able to secure customers and move into the launch business."The big dogs For now, the only dependable launch game in town runs on large, geosynchronous satellites stuffed with electronics. Thats not a business that a modest spaceport like the VSFC is equipped to handle. An enticing alternative may be space-station resupply, an effort that could be parceled out between the existing spaceports. Discussions with NASA on the particulars continue. "Spaceports had their eyes on orbiting constellations of satellites, especially in the areas of replenishment and replacement," said Pat Ladner, executive director of the Alaska Aerospace Development Corporation, which has developed its own spaceport on Kodiak Island. "I think that, in the next two to three years, the constellation idea will rebound. The future will be good for small-to-medium payloads." For his part, Reed continues to believe in the smallsat future: up to 1,200 launches in the next five to 10 years. The VSFC continues to push its cost-competitiveness. Excluding rocket-related outlays, Reed says companies will find a VSFC-organized launch roughly 80-percent cheaper than what is now available at sites in either California or Florida: approximately $500,000 versus $2.4 million. The Center also touts its "schedule-friendly" space access, meaning that commercial, government and academic users wont have to worry that their launches will be delayed or canceled because of military or space-shuttle missions. "Wallops has the infrastructure. Theres expertise there already, and thats a big advantage," Ladner said. "They have very good management and a great group of contractors. Their future looks pretty good."
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
