With the excitement of SpaceX, I thought I'd mention this. I wasn't aware of it until last year when the director of MARS came down ot our flying club to talk about their operations -
We know Cape Canaveral. Did you know that 1 in 4 vehicles lifted into orbit from the US actually launch from Virginia? The MARS - Mid Atlantic Regional Spaceport is located at Wallops Island Virginia, just north of the more famous Chincoteague and Assateague islands. Some of the very first US rocket launches, including experiments with captured V-2 rockets after WWII took place at Wallops Island as part of the Goddard research center.
Today MARS is a semi-independent launch site. NASA still keeps involvement with it and uses it for small launches. Several surrounding states are supporting a commercial operation at the site (MARS), which among other things, uses retired ICBM vehicles repurposed to carry civilian payloads to space. One of the best parts of Wallops Island is that because it's not well known, you can get close to launches, probably closer than is really safe.
Wanted to mention it. If you're on the east cost, Viriginia may be a lot closer than Florida.
Colorado is attempting to build a Commercial SpacePort at Front Range Airport - Pretty cool stuff if you also consider that Colorado is No. 2 in the nation for Aerospace Industry
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_19493801 (http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_19493801)
They use ex ICBM vehicles to launch people? We are recycling!
Quote from: Cashboy on May 22, 2012, 06:54:14 PM
They use ex ICBM vehicles to launch people? We are recycling!
We've been using ex-ICBM's to launch people since Project Mercury. John Glenn went into orbit on a Atlas missile.
Almost all of the Titan II missiles were used to launch satilites after they were pulled from their missile silos.
But John Glenn wasn't launched on an ex-ICBM, it was a brand spanking new, man-rated version of the Atlas D. The D was the current, in-service ICBM. The last R&D launch of its successor, the Atlas E, took place a week before Glenn.
As noted in my post for the 50th anniversary of Glenn's launch this past February, the D model had a 68% launch success rate prior to Glenn's flight. But the man-rated Mercury-Atlas D series was at only 60% when Glenn climbed into his capsule atop the rocket. A test launch of a D-version ICBM failed the day after Glenn's launch.
Atlas E's were stored at Norton AFB after deactivation. A number of them were recycled to launch satellites with a 100% success rate.
Mike
Quote from: Cashboy on May 22, 2012, 06:54:14 PM
They use ex ICBM vehicles to launch people? We are recycling!
I think MARS is focused on non-living payloads. They have worked out a system to use the rocket motors to reliably put something into orbit on a different trajectory...their launch path goes south east over the Atlantic. Sometimes that's a better path.
Today I believe the US no longer has a reliable system to launch a human into space.
Wallops has put more things into orbit than any other launch facility. In the end of March they did the ARTEX launch and launched 5 rockets in 5 minutes to conduct test of the ultra high jet stream. There are some cool pictures on the internet of that if you look for them. Wallops is also one of the few places in the US that can put stuff up in Polar Orbit because they can shoot to the south unlike Cape Canaveral.
John
Bronwville, Texas is also vieing for a SPACE PORT...
http://www.parabolicarc.com/2012/05/16/big-support-in-brownsville-for-spacexs-proposed-texas-spaceport/ (http://www.parabolicarc.com/2012/05/16/big-support-in-brownsville-for-spacexs-proposed-texas-spaceport/)
I hope they get it. As a lad I was told that when I was an adult regular Space travel would be a reality...the time may have arrived.
Will it be a futuristic effort worthy of all that is TECH, or will these become the "cantina scene" from Star Wars? Both, in all honesty, would be cool.
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