{"id":7368,"date":"2009-10-06T09:10:50","date_gmt":"2009-10-06T15:10:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=7368"},"modified":"2009-10-06T09:10:50","modified_gmt":"2009-10-06T15:10:50","slug":"commercializing-space-taking-longer-than-predicted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2009\/10\/commercializing-space-taking-longer-than-predicted\/","title":{"rendered":"Commercializing space taking longer than predicted"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A

A conceptual drawing of Spaceport America. (Courtesy photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s been five years since SpaceShipOne<\/a> won the first Ansari X Prize and proved that commercial vehicles have a future in outer space.<\/p>\n

But the move to actually commercialize space hasn\u2019t been as quick as those trying to make it happen predicted.<\/p>\n

The Associated Press<\/a> is taking a look at that reality in a new article. The article features \u201cdaredevil venture capitalist\u201d Alan Walton as one of hundreds of people who \u201cplunked down\u201d the $200,000 to be among the first space tourists on a Virgin Galactic<\/a> spaceship.<\/p>\n

Now he says he\u2019s about ready to ask for his money back, if there\u2019s no set launch date by next April, when he turns 74.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was going to be the highlight of my old age,\u201d the AP quoted Walton as saying.<\/p>\n

When Virgin officials and the state of New Mexico came together to announce a partnership to turn the commercial space industry into a reality, they estimated commercial flights beginning in 2007 in California and moving to Spaceport America<\/a> as soon as the New Mexico facility was ready in 2008.<\/p>\n

Clearly, that hasn\u2019t happened. Commercial flights in California haven\u2019t started yet, as Virgin has experienced as many delays in building its craft as New Mexico officials have had in building the spaceport.<\/p>\n

From the AP article:<\/p>\n

\u201cTurning the dream into reality has taken longer than many expected in those days, and spaceflight remains the realm of government astronauts and a handful of extraordinarily wealthy people who have paid millions for rides on Russian rockets to the international space station.<\/p>\n

\u201cX Prize founder Peter Diamandis says, however, that things have not been at a standstill.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than $1 billion has been invested in the industry, regulatory roadblocks have been addressed and as many as three different passenger spaceships will emerge in the next 18 to 24 months and begin flying, he said.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Spaceport America\u2019s runway is under construction<\/a>, and officials now estimate that the facility will be operational by 2011.<\/p>\n

But the AP article deals with the creation of the spaceship, not the spaceport. Check it out by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been five years since SpaceShipOne won the first Ansari X Prize and proved that commercial vehicles have a future in outer space. But the move to actually commercialize space hasn\u2019t been as quick as those trying to make it happen predicted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,1],"tags":[141],"class_list":["post-7368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","category-uncategorized","tag-spaceport-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7368\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}