Commercial Spaceport Development - A Case Study in Effective Public / Private Partnership
- Paper number
IAC-08.E3.3.9
- Author
Mr. Charles Lauer, Rocketplane Global, Inc., United States
- Coauthor
Ms. Misuzu Onuki, Space Frontier Foundation, Japan
- Coauthor
Mr. George French, Rocketplane Global, Inc., United States
- Coauthor
Mr. Lawrence Austin, Starwalker Group LLC, United States
- Year
2008
- Abstract
Since the opening of commercial human spaceflight opportunities in 2001 with the twin breakthroughs of the Dennis Tito flight to the International Space Station and the Ansari family funding the $10 million X Prize, many different venture companies have been developing new fully reusable suborbital space vehicles for the space tourism market and other applications. In almost every instance, the entrepreneurial vehicle development and operating companies are partnering with a public sector entity to develop the spaceport location from which the vehicles will fly.
Rocketplane Global (RpG) is one of the leading new suborbital spaceplane development and operations companies, based in Oklahoma City, OK. The XP spaceplane is a horizontal takeoff and landing vehicle which uses conventional afterburning turbojets for takeoff and landing operations and a LOX / kerosene rocket engine for the ascent to space. The home base for RpG is the Oklahoma Spaceport, which has been developed by the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority (OSIDA) from a former USAF B-52 Strategic Air Command base in western Oklahoma.
The general public / private partnership (PPP) business model for RpG and others is that the private sector develops, tests and operates the vehicles while the public sector develops and operates the spaceport. This business model is very analogous to the way that commercial airports are developed and operated in the US. In the case of the Oklahoma Spaceport, the existing air traffic (civil and military) is maintained while the spaceport operations function as an overlay use to the existing FAA airport license. The Oklahoma Spaceport received its license from AST (the space licensing division of the FAA) in June 2006.
More than a dozen states in the US and more abroad are now also trying to develop new space tourism business opportunities with different vehicle companies and different PPP techniques and tools. A general survey of the competitive landscape for commercial spaceports around the world and their key development strategies and features of each will be provided.
The development synergies and activities of RpG and OSIDA will be discussed in this paper as a successful case study in PPP. In addition to providing, improving and operating facilities, tax and financial incentives for the creation on new high-tech aerospace jobs were also used. This business model is now being applied by RpG in the beginning of the development of secondary spaceport sites for the XP, both in the US and abroad. Additional RpG spaceport sites now in the early stages of development in Hawaii and Hokkaido Japan will be described.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-08.E3.3.9.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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