Jump to: site navigation, content.

Local stuff that matters to you.
Did you know about Criminal Shiftplaying at Trees tomorrow?
News & events for
Tuesday, November
24
46° F
Partly cloudy in DFW

Ah, to live (and vote) in Otero County on Tuesday

Posted By John Meyer in Square Pegs on November 3, 2008

As a space/aviation enthusiast and a rock-solid, dyed-in-the-yucca-fiber desert rat from way (out)back, I sincerely wish I could be voting in Otero County, New Mexico tomorrow (Nov. 4). Why, you ask? Because voters there will have a measure on their ballots to allocate one eighth of one percent of additional sales tax towards the development of Spaceport America.

That grandly-named facility would serve as the site for commercial launches beyond the Earth's atmosphere, allowing private enterprise outfits such as Virgin Galactic and Mesquite-based Armadillo Aerospace to compete with NASA (and Russia, and China, and - for cripe's sake - India) for the privilege of launching payloads into space. These would include civilian passenger vehicles.

Hey, it ain't the Jetson rocket car we were promised lo these many years ago, but it's a (giant) leap in the general direction.

Go, Otero County voters, go! Maybe, from the initial arc of the launch parabola, passengers gazing down toward Victorio Peak can get a glimpse of old Doc Noss' crawlspace into the cavern containing 100 tons of gold.

  • Staff
  • Verified User
  • Anonymous

Travis Bush says:

I hope they vote yes!

Verified

1 year ago
Link to this comment | Suggest removal

John Meyer says:

<p>Big (well, medium-sized, anyway) bummer - Otero County voters <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20081105/sc_space/newmexicovotersdefeatspaceportamericameasure">defeated the sales tax measure</a> that would have gone to support Spaceport America.</p>

<p>Fortunately, this won't affect plans to move forward with the development of the facility, but it may delay (or limit) operations.</p>

What do you think?

:

:

Quantcast