Location
Radisson Resort at the Port, Convention Center, Jamaica Room
Start Date
30-4-2002 1:00 PM
End Date
30-4-2002 4:00 PM
Description
Space transportation truly begins at the launch pad where the vehicle arrives for final processing prior to flight. Production of the launch vehicle and its payload likely occurred elsewhere. The question of who actually controlled the spaceport and its facilities was not a particularly controversial one or even a question at all until the 1990s. It is not controversial today but the question has become who should run the federal spaceports? Until that time, national security concerns drove the field along with the even more potent force of institutional inertia. Having the federal government specifically the military be responsible for spaceport operations was both logical and necessary since the early facilities were built for the purposes of ballistic missile testing. That situation has changed at least rhetorically more recently with the increasing internationalization of the space marketplace. Internationalization contains within it the kernel of enhanced competition – a dramatic change for the space transportation field. For years, national security and other considerations made the space transportation industry a series of nationalistic enclaves (McLucas, 1991). This situation usually still exists regarding any government payloads that normally fly upon national flag launchers. Since 1991, private payloads have been increasing their proportion of the market (despite some short term downward fluctuations as in 2001), meaning that space transportation is now increasingly driven by cost factors rather than simply national preference especially when the satellite consortium purchaser is international. Competition therefore becomes the new paradigm through which potential users look for the greatest value for the expenditure. As part of this new marketplace, state spaceports are becoming increasingly visible as potential players in the space transportation field. In this paper, state spaceports are described in terms of the forces driving change, the factors inhibiting their success, and a brief assessment of the future shape of state policy if long term success is desired.
Paper Session I-B - Making State Spaceports Economic Change Agents
Radisson Resort at the Port, Convention Center, Jamaica Room
Space transportation truly begins at the launch pad where the vehicle arrives for final processing prior to flight. Production of the launch vehicle and its payload likely occurred elsewhere. The question of who actually controlled the spaceport and its facilities was not a particularly controversial one or even a question at all until the 1990s. It is not controversial today but the question has become who should run the federal spaceports? Until that time, national security concerns drove the field along with the even more potent force of institutional inertia. Having the federal government specifically the military be responsible for spaceport operations was both logical and necessary since the early facilities were built for the purposes of ballistic missile testing. That situation has changed at least rhetorically more recently with the increasing internationalization of the space marketplace. Internationalization contains within it the kernel of enhanced competition – a dramatic change for the space transportation field. For years, national security and other considerations made the space transportation industry a series of nationalistic enclaves (McLucas, 1991). This situation usually still exists regarding any government payloads that normally fly upon national flag launchers. Since 1991, private payloads have been increasing their proportion of the market (despite some short term downward fluctuations as in 2001), meaning that space transportation is now increasingly driven by cost factors rather than simply national preference especially when the satellite consortium purchaser is international. Competition therefore becomes the new paradigm through which potential users look for the greatest value for the expenditure. As part of this new marketplace, state spaceports are becoming increasingly visible as potential players in the space transportation field. In this paper, state spaceports are described in terms of the forces driving change, the factors inhibiting their success, and a brief assessment of the future shape of state policy if long term success is desired.
