Virginia Can Be a ‘Space State’

NORFOLK When asked which states are "space states," many Americans would list Florida, California, and perhaps Texas as the most obvious candidates. However, Tuesday night's launch of an Orbital Sci ences Corporation (OCS) Minotaur rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (co-located with the NASA flight facility on Wallops Island) moves Virginia closer to becoming a member of this rather exclusive club.

Sure, there have been a thousand launches of small sounding rockets and other missions from the Eastern Shore, and many were military launches like this one. However, this was different, as the vehicle was built and operated by a commercial firm that got paid for the ride, representing a historic shift in the whole field of space flight, and a chance for Virginia to take a lead position in what may be a new space race.

The rocket that lit the skies across the Atlantic Seaboard was the signal flare of this new space age in Virginia based on commercial spaceflight -- one that may even lead to human flights from its Eastern Shore within a fairly short time, ushering in an age when a place that was once the destination of explorers and fortune seekers to this "New World" becomes the jumping of point for those of the next.

WITH A LOT of work on the part of a dedicated group of Virginia visionaries, in both the government and private sectors, this state is moving rapidly to take a lead role in what space experts call the "New Space" revolution, wherein the private sector at last takes its place alongside government players to open the space frontier.

This is not an accident; it's based on a lot of hard work over years by a small group of Virginia leaders who saw the rise of commercial space firms and growing support for them in D.C. NASA and the Department of Defense have become more open to buying rides for their payloads and even personnel on commercial rockets, and there has been pro-active legislation from agencies like the FAA to encourage commercial human space flight. Interestingly, so far most of the heavy lifting in this initiative has been done by this small group, made up primarily of government employees and officials with almost no local commercial support. As this race heats up, the level of support needs to change.

In some areas Virginia is already behind states such as New Mexico, which is building a spaceport for Richard Branson's "Virgin Galactic," and Texas, home to the launch site for Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos's "Blue Origins" space tourism firm.

In others, the commonwealth is ahead. For example, by offering "Zero G -- Zero Tax" (ZGZT) incentives to firms such as these and OSC for profits produced in space, Virginia has leapfrogged over the pack in the courting dance for what will be the spacelines of tomorrow. (In fact ZGZT was a prime reason OSC flies from Wallops.)

Combined with the most enlightened liability laws in the world for those carrying paying "participants" (the government term for humans paying to fly in space for pleasure or profit), the state is heading in the right direction. OSC -- now being considered by NASA, along with California-based SpaceX (founded by PayPal's Elon Musk), to be the first commercial firms to carry astronauts to the International Space Station -- is only the first of these firms to fly from Virginia. More may be on the way if the state can out-attract the other competitors.

WHY IS THIS important? Simple -- space and its accompanying high-technology, inspirational, leading-edge, job-creating abilities are exactly in line with what future planners are predicting is the way not only to save the U.S. economy, but to push us back into the forefront of global economic leadership.

No one but Russia can do space the way we do, and as these new entrepreneurs begin to fly their ships, even that will change dramatically in our favor. From satellite launches to the construction of orbiting space hotels and space solar power plants, to the flights of tourists and NASA explorers, a space renaissance is on its way, in a big way.

If you are skeptical, imagine a time in the not too distant future when rocketships are blazing into the skies off the Virginia coast -- not just every few months, but every night and day, carrying communications satellites and probes to explore the cosmos, as well as flying astronauts and commercial customers to space stations, hotels, and beyond, even to the moon and Mars. Then imagine you are a child, growing up in such place, looking at those lights in the sky. Imagine what that would do to your mind -- and your plans for your own future -- and where you want to live it.

Rick Tumlinson is the founder of XTreme Space Inc. and The Space Frontier Foundation. Contact him at .