Space Frontier Foundation Co-Founder and spaceflight recruiter/consultant Rick Tumlinson is touting Accomack County, Virginia -- site of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport -- for future commercial space launch activities reports DelMarVaNow.com.
Tumlinson sees his job as three-fold: first "to educate the NewSpace companies that it's not just about Florida or New Mexico or California, but there's this great place called Accomack County;" second, to promote the NewSpace concept generally; and last, to educate people in local government and at the spaceport itself about the needs and potential of NewSpace.
Advancing human spaceflight from the Eastern Shore of Virginia may be challenging but the facility is being recognized among the niche commercial spaceflight community. The Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport is the location for the launch of the Orbital Sciences Corporation Taurus-II booster beginning in the spring of 2011 designed to ferry supplies and cargo to the International Space Station under a $1.9 Billion NASA contract.
Those associated with the spaceport seek to lure firms like Bigelow Aerospace, SpaceX, XCOR, and other NewSpace firms to invest, launch booster hardware, launch spaceflight tourists and commercial scientist-astronauts to space and to space stations from the Eastern Shore of Virginia within the next few years.
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