Houston Spaceport Advances With Building Purchase
Artist’s rendition of Ellington Spaceport includes two Virgin Galactic WhiteKnightTwo/SpaceShipTwo combinations, Orbital ATK’s Stargazer air-launch plane, and a futuristic looking point-to-point aircraft. (Credit: Houston Airport System)
HOUSTON, Nov. 10, 2015 (HAS PR) — The Houston Airport System completed an important step in the functional launch of the Houston Spaceport on Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2015, when Houston City Council members approved the $6.9 million purchase of an aerospace engineering building and land adjacent to Ellington Airport.
Using airport funds for the purchase, the 53,000 square foot building will house a shared use manufacturing and general office facility, and already has prospective tenants. The airport system has received a letter of intent to lease from both Intuitive Machines and UK-based Catapult Satellite Applications, and expects to receive others in the near future.
Houston Airports will modify the building and eventually have small and large companies housed on the same campus to encourage collaboration. The co-working space would conceivably include an incubation space for early-stage companies, more permanent offices for developing companies and even larger facilities for companies that need room to mass produce their products.
“This facility becomes the first dedicated infrastructure for the Houston Spaceport project,” said Arturo Machuca, the General Manager at Ellington Airport who successfully led the HAS effort to obtain a Launch Site License from the Federal Aviation Administration. “This building will allow us to solidify ongoing commercial relationships with established and emerging aerospace companies. The concept of developing an innovation district as part of the Houston Spaceport project is a key element in achieving the far-reaching goal of developing the aerospace industry into a successful commercial endeavor.”
Located on 4.30 acres of land that abuts the west side of Ellington Airport near existing Boeing Company offices and National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Sonny Carter Training Facility, the Boeing Company currently occupies the Houston Product Service Center and plans to continue to use a portion in connection with its NASA contracts.
More details on the plans for the co-working space and incubator concept will be announced at the SpaceCom Conference in Houston next week.
5 responses to “Houston Spaceport Advances With Building Purchase”
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I don’t understand the current use-case of such a facility, long-term yes but what pays the bills for the next 10-20 years. How many space-planes or aircraft assisted rockets/space vehicles do they project are going to be built in the near future? Especially space-planes that carry passengers because the design of the spaceport looks centered around moving people. Is it all for Virgin?
I do like the idea of an incubator and test bed but I just question the apparent limited focus of the spaceport. – hoping that I missing something
Good questions. First, it’s not the politicians’ money, so what do they care? Second, they can all thump their chests as they look down their noses at the Texas towns that don’t have a spaceport. Third, like you, I hope it all works out.
It’s still functioning as a normal airport. This is basically preparing for the future, acquiring land and facilities for future spaceport services. The buildings could sit empty for years if nothing happens. The airport I live near owns dozens of old buildings and old hangars that are basically rotting away, but they keep the land for possible future expansion.
So I guess the result is that it’ll be most likely be empty for now (10+ years) until horizontal take off and landing spacecraft/planes are more prolific. Although I should say a strong ‘if’ they’re more prolific, seeing as reusable VTOL rockets are looking far superior in terms of cost.
http://www.parabolicarc.com…
I would hope it’s not 10+ years. XCOR’s Lynx and VG’s SS2 should have been flying for several years by then , and both would be good candidates for an anchor tenant.