For example, administration buildings sometimes were built near launch pads. Those buildings had to be evacuated during a launch, disrupting the flow of work.

Originally, the 50-year plan was "a visionary concept in how the land might be used," said Sue Gaines, Kennedy Space Center's lead for comprehensive planning.

Looking that far ahead is a challenge, according to Ed Gormel, executive director of the Florida Space Authority. He compared it to the difficulty the Wright brothers would face trying to prepare for the Boeing 747.

It's hard to predict what will happen in the technological field over time, he said.

The plan, which will be released July 1, has three phases:

The first phase deals with the shuttle. Studies predict it will last another 20 years. But it also will likely include a vehicle that takes off horizontally like an airplane. In the first phase, the horizontal launcher will make two flights a year.

The second phase may be geared to a follow-up, piloted reusable vehicle, and will make about nine horizontal launches per year.

The third phase assumes about half of launches will be made with horizontal vehicles.

KSC is currently working on magnetic-levitation technology, in which magnets would propel a vehicle horizontally until engines could boost it the rest of the way vertically.

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe also has renewed the agency's research into nuclear propulsion.

A vehicle powered by this technology would not fire its engines on the ground, said Ed Weiler, who is in charge of NASA's space science office. That would occur only when the vehicle got into space by means of a conventional launch vehicle.

Currently, the only infrastructure in place for horizontal-takeoff vehicles is the shuttle landing strip at Kennedy Space Center and what's known as the "skid strip" at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

The 50-year plan sets aside land northwest of the shuttle launch pads and on the Cape Canaveral side for future airstrips to be used as developments require.

Tourists by the pound

As some planners focus on science and technology, others are looking toward the possibilities of space tourism. A viable space-tourism industry is dependent upon lowering the cost of getting tourists into space.

It costs the shuttle about $10,000 to put one pound into low-Earth orbit. By that standard, it costs $1.5 million just to put a 150-pound person into orbit.

That's not including the price of training and the life-support systems, such as food and oxygen on board.

In the plan's third phase -- the one that deals with the most horizontally launched vehicles -- costs are expected to drop to $100 per pound, with half the launches from the spaceport as standard vertical launches and the other half using reusable launch vehicles that take off horizontally.

When the price gets to $30 per pound, space tourism for the average person could take off, Gormel said.

This is the level at which passenger volume would justify a stable space-tourism industry. The estimated price per passenger would be about $10,000, and the spaceport predicts they could sell more than 500,000 tickets to space.

Currently, space tourists such as Dennis Tito and Mark Shuttleworth are paying Russia about $20 million for a ride on the Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station. Shuttleworth's trip began April 25. He docked to the station on Saturday.

Viewing opportunities

At the same discussion session as Ponik, Wayne Eleazer with ACTA, a risk-analysis company in Cape Canaveral, will talk about another kind of space tourism.

In the immediate future, the real "space tourism," he said, is people coming to Florida to see a launch. This is the only place in the world where people can conveniently travel to a launch.

"We don't think the community takes advantage of that fact," Eleazer said.

His plan calls for better communication for the tourists.

"I think every store and hotel in Titusville should have a countdown clock out front that starts at a minute or so," Eleazer said. "All of the hotels should have television systems that have a channel for launch."

He suggested that people put up lighted electronic signs at Port Canaveral and possibly Orlando International Airport, letting people know when the next rocket will launch.

Military interests

Military uses also are important element in spaceport development.

Gormel recently attended the National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo., where he said there was discussion about melding the interests of NASA and the military.

He said this fit well with what the focus of the 50-year plan: That the state, working with NASA and the Air Force, can come up with a cohesive mission for the area.

He said he hopes people can talk about issues specific to Cape Canaveral and Kennedy Space Center at this week's Space Congress.

"I think it has emerged as the primary space-related conference in our part of the world," said Julie Andrews, Space Congress publicity chairwoman.

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