x33 update


Message posted by gary on January 19, 2001 at 15:39:15 EST:

http://www.avpress.com/n/frsty5.hts

City to join in spaceport effort
This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press January 19, 2001.

By BOB WILSON
Valley Press Staff Writer

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PALMDALE - With no discussion, the City Council agreed to link arms with four other agencies Wednesday in an effort to make Harper Dry Lake as well-known as Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Under the agreement, Palmdale will work with the city of Lancaster, the counties of Kern and San Bernardino and the Western Commercial Space Center - a group previously devoted to the promotion of Vandenberg Air Force Base - as the home of the nation's primary spaceport for the next generation of American spacecraft.

The agreement makes the city part of the Reusable Launch Vehicles Competitiveness Consortium, which will help compile the first information the federal government will require before establishing a spaceport.

In April, Harper Dry Lake was selected as the best site in California to vie with competing sites in the states of Florida, Georgia, Utah and Texas.

The winning state will reap the benefits of a $3 billion to $5 billion space program that could bring 2,000 construction jobs and a permanent work force of 200 to 300 space-flight engineers and technicians, as well as worldwide attention.

The new consortium is intended to spur cooperation between agencies at the local, state and federal levels in compiling the information needed for the Federal Aviation Administration to facilitate the certification and licensing of reusable-launch vehicles and the certification of their launch facilities.

The work of the consortium will be funded by a $1 million grant from the state.

Palmdale already is home to efforts by Lockheed Martin Corp. and NASA to construct a prototype for the VentureStar series, the next generation of space vehicles.

The prototype, dubbed the X-33, has been beset with technical problems that have pushed back plans for a test launch from 1999 to at least 2003. More than $220 million has been spent on the project so far.

If and when it flies, the X-33 will be launched from an already completed launch facility near Haystack Butte, on the eastern end of Edwards AFB near Rosamond.

Harper Dry Lake also is on the east end of Edwards, about 25 miles northwest of Barstow.

If the VentureStar program becomes reality, the single-stage ships could be built in Palmdale and towed to the San Bernardino County launch site. The ships could be towed back to Palmdale for maintenance and repairs.

Space officials are considering two sites: one to be the primary launch-and-landing site, with assembly of VentureStar craft to take place nearby; the other to be an alternate site at least 500 miles away for launching and landing but no assembly.



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