Canada's spaceport

Jack Kennedy, Wise, Va. — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 12:41:13 GMT

With the growing number of serious commercial spaceport investments in California, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas and those proposed in Florida, Canada (as you reference), Singapore, Sweden, Scotland and the UAE, make me wonder why the FAA/AST licensed Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Virginia is not host to any human suborbital space tourist launch activities. The Wallops Island facility is in the center of the East Coast population with all the necessary infrastructure for processing, launch, runways, tracking, etc. Anyone any idea why Virginia, home of Space Adventures, t/Space, and a host of other space-related firms are taking a pass on Wallops commercial human tourist spaceflight?

Canada's spaceport

Wade Whitlock — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 15:56:52 GMT

Hmm! Alan, correct me if I'm wrong but Canada hasn't gotten anything significant off the ground since Diefenbaker killed the AVRO CF-104 Arrow and all the rest of Canadian aerospace. The current crop of wannabes haven't gotten anything up.

So, what do they want with a "spaceport" which implies arrivals as well as departures? Besides which, isn't there a hell of a lot of air and surface traffic around NS?

Sounds like a lot of plans without substance. Do you think that Kathuria could end up like the protagonist in Heinlein's "The Man Who Sold the Moon"?

More Cosmically, did you catch the size limit on brown dwarves? Thanks for the "pinwheel" link!

Canada's spaceport

Frank Glover, Rochester, NY — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 12:40:33 GMT

Wallops Island may not be getting much attenton from some of the new firms because, sepending on their plans and designs, launching adjacent to water is either irrelevant (a suborbital single-stage ir air-launched flight with no expendable components that returns to its launch site), or an actual liability.

Here's another view of over-water 'range safety' issues:
http://selenianboondocks.blogspot.com/
2006/08/rlv-spaceports-etc.html

Canada's spaceport

Bill Durling — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 01:39:55 GMT

For all who are ill informed about the Cape Breton project. The reason that it will be based in Cape Breton is simply because the new arrow will be using coal which is abundently available here.Now we can put that to bed!

Canada's spaceport

Brock — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 18:18:14 GMT

Re: For all who are ill informed about the Cape Breton project. The reason that it will be based in Cape Breton is simply because the new arrow will be using coal which is abundantly available here.Now we can put that to bed!

Is this just tongue-in-cheek or true that the Arrow will be using coal? Can anyone provide a reference?

Canada's spaceport

Terry Magdy — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 01:35:25 GMT

Brock: That is typical Cape Breton humour !

From an article on Space.com
"Geoff Sheerin, PlanetSpace CEO and president, said Nova Scotia's Cape Breton is a prime starting ground for orbital space shots. Not only does the site allow rockets to shed stages into the Atlantic Ocean - rather than a populated landmass - during liftoff, but also allows launch trajectories to reach the International Space Station (ISS), he added. "