UK PLANNING SPACEPORT

A few days ago I blogged about the coming geopolitical effects of space commercialization and competition, including the suggestion and implication that these factors might lead  to the eventual disruption of international programs such as the European Space  Agency, as individual nations with the economic base and technological infrastructure  to conduct their own independent space programs do so to protect their own satellite communications assets, countries like France, Germany,or, in this case, the U.K.:

UK to Launch Commercial Spaceport by 2018

There is something very interesting occurring in this article, and it suggests, though certainly does not directly state, how such a state of affairs may come about. Consider the following statements:

"The timetable lays out a number of other specific dates: The spaceport could be operational from 2016; the first suborbital flight would occur in 2018; the first sub-orbital space plane satellite launch from the spaceport would take place in 2020; rocket engine testing for the orbital space plane would occur in 2026, and that space plane would be operational four years later. [Evolution of the Space Plane (Infographic)]

"The rocket-engine testing refers to hybrid engines, which are used by the Skylon space plane, manufactured by U.K. company Reaction Engines."

And this:

"Previously, potential users, such as Virgin Galactic, have favored Lossiemouth, in Scotland. A 2009 report into spaceport candidate locations for the U.K. Space Agency's predecessor, the British National Space Centre (BNSC), found Lossiemouth to be the best site. Located in northern Scotland, Lossiemouth is on the coast of the North Sea and has a Royal Air Force base with a runway suitable for the types of launch systems used by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic"

The article goes on to point out that the upcoming referendum on Scottish independence could change the location, but this is not the point to notice. The point to notice is the proximity to a Royal Air Force base with a suitably long runway, a runway long enough to accommodate the coming generation of sub-orbital "space planes" whose engines are, as followers of the aerospace industry know, already in testing stages.

And all of this is taking place, we are informed, with the backing of very wealthy people who think they're going to make a bundle off of the demand for space tourism. I don't know about you, but the last time I looked, there wasn't much of a clamor for a space vacation. Sure, create the technology and the opportunity, and demand will follow, and there will inevitably be a trickle of space tourists with the mega-bucks or mega-euros to afford such a jaunt.

I suspect, however, that what we're looking at is the emergence of the new paradigm: the contracting and development of technologies whose military application - think sub-orbital bombers here folks - is being done under the guise of a civilian pursuit. In fact, you'll recall that the first serious proposal and pursuit of such a sub-orbital spaceplane was done by Nazi scientist and engineer Dr. Eugen Saenger, to create an "Amerika-bomber" that would literally bomb targets in the USA, circumnavigate the globe, and return to Europe. Allow the  public and civilian sector, in other words, to reveal a technology that has probably existed in the black world for some time, and then reveal the military version to the public in order to protect the commercial and civilian populace in space.

And Great Britain, like every other great power, knows this, and intends to develop its national capability in this respect. We can expect the same from France, Germany, and as the article points out, such private spaceports are already under development in the USA.

In other words, in the next 10-20 years, the world is about to change, dramatically, again, through the introduction of new technologies.

See you on the flip side...

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Joseph P. Farrell

Joseph P. Farrell has a doctorate in patristics from the University of Oxford, and pursues research in physics, alternative history and science, and "strange stuff". His book The Giza DeathStar, for which the Giza Community is named, was published in the spring of 2002, and was his first venture into "alternative history and science".

5 Comments

  1. DownunderET on August 15, 2014 at 3:30 pm

    Wind, that’s all it is, this is just part of the slow news drip in space matters, the real space program is of course “hidden”. I just wonder when the “sports models” will start showing up at “air shows”?



  2. gkb623 on August 15, 2014 at 12:03 pm

    At least they’ll have the advantage to make that escape and save their royal asses when things run amok. In the the meantime, why not use the tech to bomb people when the elites don’t get their way.. and for $50,000 some will even get to see the view of bombings in the middle east etc. From space!!



  3. marcos toledo on August 15, 2014 at 8:01 am

    A expensive toy for rich but if that what take to kick start the space program into life again so be it.



  4. chris on August 15, 2014 at 6:54 am

    I’m there baby. Get me out of the “Gravity Well, a little room with a view in the back.
    Just collateralize more of the moon. That Helium 3 ain’t going to dig itself out of the surface…
    Just Saying…



  5. Lost on August 15, 2014 at 5:41 am

    With that small 50 million pound project cost this is not going to go far.

    (That is assuming these space planes need to be serviced at anything like specialized facilities.)

    That kind of money is only going to buy a couple of long runways and big hangers.



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