The Mojave Air and Space Port

 VMS EVE carries VSS Enterprise on her first manned flight, seen soaring over Mojave. Photo by Mark Greenberg

The Future of Space Lies in the Desert...

It is amazing to think that we are only a year or two away from seeing the first flights of regular paying passengers aboard Virgin Galactics Spaceship 2 and XCOR Lynx vehicles. These companies work tirelessly everyday to bring about a revolution that will be hard to miss. Many people may not be aware that these 2 companies live next door to each other at the Mojave Air and Space Port, in Mojave California. Not only are they located there, but so is Masten Aerospace, another New Space group with its own unique approach to getting to space. Prior to these companies being there, this was home to Rotary Rocket, a company with a very unique helicopter/rocket hybrid to get to space. All these amazing companies, in such close proximity to one another, begs a question. Why would these companies all settle at the Mojave Air and Space Port? Hopefully I may be able to answer that question.

This blog post will cover the Mojave Air and Space Port, it's history, and why Mojave became the place that will bring civillian space travel to the world.

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Bring in the Competitor...

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-Image by Satoru Kikuchi-

Competition

We need competition in space! Yes, competition. We need companies who will be willing to go the extra mile for their customer, to provide them the safest ride to and from space. We need it done effectively, and we need the price to come down drastically. We need a new space market that would allow people to get excited about the future of space, and help regular people realize the possibilities of this grand solar system which they ignore everyday. 

Actually, all of this already exists.

We saw the beginnings of this space market through the work of MirCorp, the first private space business. We witnessed the Ansari X Prize, when Scaled Composites won the 10 Million prize for sending their vehicle into space. Quickly afterwards, Virgin Galactic was created, who will be sending thousands of people up to space very soon. Virgin Galactic has drastically brought down the flight of space travel. It is normal to see people getting rides into space for $50-$100 million, now it will be done for only $200,000 ( that is .4% of 50 million). That is insane.

Can the price of space travel get lower? check this out...

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Burt Rutan: Who Is He And Why Should You Care?

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Who is he?

Burt Rutan is the founder of Scaled Composites, and Aerospace Engineer who designed the new sub-orbital plane for Virgin Galactic, the first company to cheaply sell flights to space for only $200,000 (well, it's cheap in comparison to anyone else who was offering). Another big accomplishment of his was the Voyager aircraft, which was the first plane to fly around the world without stopping or refueling.

Why should you care?

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