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SpaceShipTwo unveiled: When will we see it fly?
SpaceShipTwo (Photo by RocknRoll/Virgin Galactic)
So Virgin Galactic unveiled on Monday its long-awaited SpaceShipTwo – the craft it plans to use to ferry paying passengers into suborbital space from Spaceport America. The big question now: When will we see it fly?
The original estimate of when we’d see Virgin’s craft performing its duties from a completed Spaceport America has already passed. Still, things are underway. The spaceport runway is under construction. And the rollout of SpaceShipTwo – a craft in which Virgin has invested about as much money as New Mexico has invested in the spaceport – is significant.
The state has appropriated $200 million for construction of the spaceport.
Gov. Bill Richardson was on hand for the unveiling of the craft in California on Monday. His office said in a news release that “the majority of construction” on the spaceport is set to be complete by December 2010, with construction on Virgin’s terminal and hangar beginning “soon.”
You can read more about Monday’s event from The Associated Press.
Govs. Bill Richardson and Arnold Schwarzenegger name SpaceShipTwo as the VSS Enterprise. (Photo by Mark Greenberg/Virgin Galactic)
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This SpacePort and the little rocket ship here are just more taxpayer funded boondoggles to subsidize the rich. Why do citizens need to pay for a spaceport that will do very little to increase economic activity in this sparsely populated area. The millionaires will fly in and out (the road to it off I-25 is a dirt, washed out, washboard mess) and not even buy a Coke in town. All the workers who build a runway and a few buildings will be gone in a few months, this will do nothing for the area economcially, but it will line the pockets of Branson and his Arab investors, at taxpayer expense. Someone explain to me why this is good.
Although I believe the concept of this venture is over-all good — I still do not agree that taxpayers should be subsidizing this public/private enterprise.
Based upon a thallium discovery in Sierra County I wonder what will happen to the future of this Jornada Del Muerto adventure?
For relevant information regarding this Thallium anomaly go to http://www.silverprospector.com/discovery.html and then scroll down to PART 4.
Just to remind people, its not April 1st. While the money from the residents of Dona Ana County is already going into a black hole, get used to the word “soon” for an actual launch from SubOrbital Spaceport America.