To many people outside of NASA, the idea of commercial spaceflight may seem like too much science fiction thinking without enough roots in reality.
If this were the case, it wouldn’t make that much sense for the city of Houston to invest in a spaceport.
However, space experts insist that commercial spaceflight is right around the corner.
View the video above to see animated renderings of the proposed spaceport at Ellington Airport.
When the Houston Airport System unveiled renderings of its proposed spaceport at Ellington Airport, it also hosted a panel discussion from commercial spaceflight experts led by Michael Lopez-Alegria, the president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. The panel spoke about the progress of commercial spaceflight.
These experts, who were all former astronauts, now work for companies that are developing commercial space vehicles, such as Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA), SpaceX, and Sierra Nevada Corp. They insisted that their companies are working on space vehicles that will be ready in a number of months, not decades. These vehicles can be used to transport astronauts and cargo to the International Space Station and send tourists and experiments into space.
“I’d like to point to as evidence, my colleagues on the panel here. These are gentlemen and women that I’ve trusted my life to, and I will do it again,” said Jeffrey Ashby, chief of mission assurance for Blue Origin LLC, an aerospace company researching commercial spaceflight. “They are just a small number … of the astronauts that are out in private industry right now helping companies succeed. But more importantly, for every one of these gentlemen here, there are a couple of hundred former NASA engineers, managers and technicians working at these small companies and bringing their experience and talent to help them succeed.”
SpaceX’s Garret Reisman, who leads the company’s commercial crew products, also said it makes economic sense to send Americans into space on American rockets.
“I don’t think anyone in this room is happy about (using foreign space vehicles to transport astronauts and resources to space),” Reisman said. “Meanwhile, we are spending about a half a billion dollars a year — more money than we are spending on the commercial crew program — to Russia buy flights to get our guys and girls to the space station. I don’t think that’s right, and we are going to fix that in the near future.”
Houston sees a potential in capitalizing on commercial spaceflight while it is still a relatively young industry. Although eight other spaceports have been licensed in the U.S., few have active flight schedules.
And due to the presence of the Johnson Space Center’s location in Houston, a strong economy and other geographic factors, the Houston Airport System believes Houston has more of a competitive advantage for a spaceport than other locations.
Still, there are some challenges along the way to building a Houston spaceport, which, if all goes according to plan, could be open by 2019.
First, the spaceport has to get a license. It also needs to be funded, and there is not yet a price tag for how much it will cost. And above all else, HAS has to convince the public that a spaceport is worthwhile. Let us know what you think about the spaceport in the poll.