Charles Sullivan writing at the popular American Thinker website takes apart Spaceport America in a recent column. He also generously mentions the Rio Grande Foundation and our tireless efforts to oppose and shed light on the poor prospects for the facility.
Yes, as reported, Virgin Galactic had a 2nd successful “glide” landing last week, but that is a very long way indeed from regular commercial space launches that take customers to the edge of space.
While we at the Rio Grande Foundation share the hopes of all New Mexicans that successful launches will eventually take place at the facility, it was always a mistake for the political leadership of our state to spend hundreds of millions of our tax dollars on the facility which has now been open for nearly a decade.
When will Virgin Galactic launch its first group of paying customers? I’d bet the farm it won’t be 2020. Maybe 2021 or 2022? The fact is that we have no idea and neither do they. A decade in and Charles Sullivan’s critique is relevant when the discussion turns to FUTURE taxpayer-financed projects.
I wonder what the radiation exposure will be for the customers at the edge of space?
I disagree with the American Thinker article on a couple of points. He implies a strong Republican Party could have stopped the Spaceport idiocy. Ha! My local rep at the time was Republican Diane Hamilton, a BIG Spaceport supporter, as was the chairman of the Dona Ana Republican party, Sid Goddard. Also, we forget that the voters of Dona Ana and Sierra Counties voted to tax themselves to support the Spaceport. To their credit, the voters of Otero County voted against a Spaceport tax.
As to not having a watchdog media, that’s another Ha! The editor of the Las Cruces Sun-News at the time was Walt Rubel, who wrote editorial after editorial supporting the Spaceport and urging voters to approve an increase in GRT to support the damn thing. The only journalist that I was aware of who opposed the Spaceport was big-time Lib David Fryxell, the owner/editor of Desert Exposure, who published numerous articles opposing the boondoggle.
I wonder if we could give it to Branson? I’d bet that would be another Ha!