[AR] Re: Michigan Announces a vertical launch facility
- From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 31 Jul 2020 19:06:03 -0400 (EDT)
On Fri, 31 Jul 2020, Anthony Cesaroni wrote:
They did this with the old Navy base at Jacksonville Florida (Cecil
Field) which has an official spaceport designation. Horizontal launch
only because the city is between it and the Atlantic Ocean. No takers
until recently.
They *sort of* had one about ten years ago: just before its demise,
Rocketplane was talking about operating there. The idea was to try to
integrate suborbital spaceflight with less-costly things like simulators
and parabolic flight, to attract people who aren't flush enough to buy a
trip to 100km. For this, being in/near a popular tourist destination was
considered a significant advantage. Broadening the market reportedly
appealed to potential investors, but apparently not quite enough...
Henry
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