FYI,

"Public Gets its Say on Private Spaceport - Hearing will provide
feedback on Amazon.com founder's spaceflight plans"
MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14017452

: Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos' plans to build a
: multimillion-dollar suborbital spaceport on his West Texas ranch
: are due for a rare public airing on Tuesday in the closest town,
: 20 miles (32 kilometers) away.

: The environmental impact hearing, to be conducted by the Federal
: Aviation Administration in Van Horn (pop. 2,435), could provide an
: indication of how quickly Bezos' Blue Origin operation might
: proceed to vehicle testing.

: Once the FAA judges Blue Origin's licensing application to be
: substantially complete, the agency has 120 days to issue or deny
: experimental permits.

: Blue Origin's plans are notable because they call for building a
: launch facility, astronaut training center and all the
: infrastructure that comes with those structures on private land,
: with private money. The nation's other spaceports are managed by
: public entities — and that also goes for would-be spaceports such
: as New Mexico's launch facility on the other side of El Paso, and
: the proposed Gulf Coast Regional Spaceport on the other side of
: Texas.

: "It is good for the economy, what he's doing," Simpson said. The
: construction already has provided a welcome boost, he said, and
: even 30 full-time jobs will make a big difference in the small
: community. Still more jobs would be created if Blue Origin brings
: in space tourists. Local residents are even hoping Bezos will add
: a viewing center to his building plans.

: "We're the last frontier of Texas, and we want to call this the
: frontier of space," Simpson said.

: His team is designing a computer-controlled, cone-shaped, reusable
: craft that would take off and land vertically, powered by a
: kerosene-fueled rocket engine. Three or more paying passengers
: would take a quick up-and-down jaunt to altitudes beyond 62 miles
: (100 kilometers), feeling a few minutes of weightlessness and
: seeing the black sky above a curving Earth.

: Such a flight profile has long been sought by rocketeers — from
: the golden age of the 1950s to the Delta Clipper and the Rotary
: Rocket in the 1990s. The technology has not yet been perfected,
: but Texas-based Armadillo Aerospace and Oklahoma-based TGV Rockets
: are known to be working on suborbital spaceships that sound
: similar to Blue Origin's proposed New Shepard craft.

: If something were to go wrong with Blue Origin's spaceship, the
: crew capsule could break away from the rocket propulsion module
: and parachute down to the launch area.

: Blue Origin says its own personnel would be the first to ride the
: rocket, after a series of progressively more ambitious unmanned
: tests. This year's initial tests are expected to go no higher than
: 2,000 feet (600 meters).

Mark Reiff