A lofty mission
Ellington works to stretch its long history into the future with the final frontier in mind
THE first planes at Ellington Field were little more than kites with motors. Yet in those Wild West days of aviation, just 14 years after the Wright brothers took their first flight, soldiers enthusiastically boarded the accident-prone Curtiss Jenny to train as pilots and bombardiers for World War I.
One hundred years later, Ellington finds itself again at the edge of a new frontier, gearing up for the era of commercial space. And just like the early days of aviation, the future is far from certain.
The Federal Aviation Administration has licensed Ellington and nine other commercial spaceports nationwide, but experts question whether that number will be viable in the foreseeable future. Getting research and satellites into space remains difficult and isn’t yet affordable for the masses. Significantly more sophisticated technology is needed before space tourism can flourish. The Houston Spaceport’s location in a bustling city also presents complications. It will not be able to host vertical rocket launches, an area where some of its peers are pulling ahead and finding success.
Local spaceport officials counter that Houston has an edge in the brainpower of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, the talent of its universities and its reputation as Space City. Once again, they say, Ellington is pushing the limitations of flight.
“It’s the same sense of ‘Go
for it’ that they had in the early days ,” said Kathryn Morrow, an Ellington Field historian and author in Rockport.
Yet there also isthe future likely will include turbulence. Space port America in New Mexico has been de cried as ill-spent taxpayer money. Its tenant Virgin Galactic has yet to launch wealthy tourists into space, and both have experienced delays and setbacks.
“This was like building an airport, a massive airport like we would have today, before those Wrighttheir first plane ,” said Paul G es sing, president of RioGrande Foundation, a free-market think tank based in Albuquerque, N.M.
Houston Space port their approach in re purposing Ellington, now officially Ellington Airport, presents fewer financial risks. As for the re optimistic that advance sin space travel will mi mic the giant leaps seen in aviation over the last century.
“It’ s a question ofwant to take the lead or we want to follow ,” said Mario Di az, director of the Houston Airport System. “We want to be in the lead on this.” A rich history
Ellington officially became a training facility for World War I on May 21,1917. Over the years ,it also has served as home to Ellington Air Force Base, a practice ground for NASA’ s lunar landing sand as Houston’ s front door for U.S. president sand foreign dignitaries ferried here on government flights.
It became home to the country’ s 10 th FAA space port in June 2015.
Houston Spaceport’s first focus is creating a aerospace companies that can in vent, develop and manufacture space technologies. Clear Lake based Intuitive Machines is its first and only tenant, but Di a zs aid he’ s working to attract others. That would prepare the space port to seize opportunities as they become more plausible.
“We need a largeone or two large companies,” he said. “And that’ s what we’ re working on right now.”
In the meantime, officials didn’ t want to dump money into a terminal that would not yet be used consistently nor bring in revenues, said Arturo Machu ca, general manager of Ellington and the Houston Space port.
“We have, asa space port operator, no control in when commercial space flight is going to really happen on a regular basis ,” Machuca said.
The timeline is particularly vague in Houston, where the space port’ s success hinges on the development of spacecraft that can take off like a plane—or, in the near er term, attach under a plane like Virgin Gal ac tic’ s spacecraft—and then ignite rockets over the Gulf of Mexico to travel into space.
Because so many people live so close by, Houston can not launch the more powerful vertical rockets.
“Right now, that’ s the only way of reaching space ,” said Bill O strove, space market analyst for Forecast International .“So right now, those types of launches are going to up from Cape Canaveral or Vandenberg or Virginia.”
Still, O strove sees Houston Space port’ s urban location as an advantage should horizontal launches and space tourism flourish. Houston has hotels and restaurants for visitors to enjoy before and after their space flight. The city’ s large population can provide a steady workforce and Johnson Space Center has the needed brain power.
The Houston Airport System invested about $7 million of its revenues to prepare for its FAA space port license and to buy the first building in its cluster of aerospace companies. On top of that amount, it is building an air traffic control tower at Ellington that will have a mission-control area.
The space port has received state andbut Machu ca doesn’ t expect to directly tax Houston residents. He envisions a public-private partnership withfoot the bill.
Compare that to Space port America, billed as“the world’ s first FAA licensed purpose-built, commercial space port ,” which cost more than $200 million to build in New Mexico. The taxpayer-funded project hasn’ t produced space tourism as quickly as many hoped or expected. Some ‘notoriety’
“Virgin Galactic has given us some press and notoriety ,” said Richard An kl am, president of the New Mexico Tax Research Institute .“But that real activity… is what we’ re waiting for, and that’ s what we desperately need .”
He said the space port will be used. But whether it brings the intended return on investment is an open question.
G es sing, with the Rio Grande Foundation, said the project wastoo speculative for taxpayer money. It was approved when the state was in abetter financial position, but the Great Recession and oil price slump have since stressed New Mexico’ s economy.
“It would sure be nice to have $200-plus million to do something else with ,” he said.
The chief executive of Space port America, however, says New Mexico has already benefited from that initial investment: The state is now competitive in the commercial space race.
“You’ ve got people now paying taxes andworking in New Mexico in the commercial space industry that you didn’ t have 10 years ago ,” CEO Dan Hicks said.
Space port America has five tenants, as well as other companies that periodically use its facilities, and more than 75 full-timehosted 24 vertical launches between 2006 and 2015, seven vertical launches last year and eight so far this year. Of those 39 flights, eight went at least 62 miles into space and two others made it at least 50 miles.
Its horizontal launches began as early as 2010, but none have made it into space. These eight “missions” include spacecraft launches and other tests such as using a helium filled balloon to lift and drop the Boeing CST-100 Star liner to assess its parachutes.
In the near term, Hicks said, the spaceport will focuson sub orbital research using vessels that spend four to six minutes in space. He expects to attract companiesflying to the International Space Station once rocket booster scan reliably return to a designated point on the ground instead of crashing into a large body of water.
As for space tourism, Virgin Group founder Richard Brans on recently told The Telegraph that he’ d be“very disappointed” if he doesn’ t get into space next year and if the program isn’ t well underway by the end of 2018. His companytragic set back in 2014 when a pilot died during a test flight over the Mojave Desert in California.
“Wear eon schedule to see a lot of exciting things ,” Hick ssaid. Gathering momentum
All of Spaceport America’ s launches into space have been sub orbital, meaning they went into space and came back down relatively quickly. They did not circle the Earth.
It’ s the spaceports at Cape Canaveral and VandenbergAir Force Base, building upon extensive launch histories and vertical-rocket capabilities, that have the most momentum in terms of getting satellite sand unmanned spacecraft deeper into space, O strove said. These types of launches are more prestigious and generate more revenue.
Cape Canaveral Space port had 23 launches last year and has completed eight launches in 2017. It expects 22 more this year from companies including Space X, United Launch Alliance and Orbital AT K. The space port is expected to have 50 launches a year within two years and 100 a year within seven years.
Harris Spaceport Systems has launched nine rockets, seven of those into space, since receiving its license in 1996 to operate a space port at California’ s Vandenberg AFB. It has more recently focused on processing and testing 15 satellites, so it didn’ t have any launches last year and doesn’t expect any this year. But it’ s hoping to process and test satellite sand also provide launch services in the future.
O strove said there isn’ t enough current demand to sustain all 10 U.S.-licensed spaceports.
But the hope is that demand will continue to grow.
Michael Blades, a senior industry analyst for aerospace, defense and security with Frost& Sullivan, expect sit will be at least 10 years, ifeverything goes perfectly, before spacecraft can take people into the lower reaches of space. It will be even longer before regularly scheduled flights are available from space ports, though he said firms testing balloons may get people into near space sooner.
He added that early spaceports and their tenants could be well positioned if such opportunities provetobesustainable.In the meantime, they’ ll have to find other sources of revenue.
“It’ s a little bit pie in the sky, but it’ s also a little bit of forward thinking ,” he said.
The Houston Airport System hopes its space port will help diversify and expand Ellington’ s air field has long been essential for providing security and emergency response, but it never fully developed in terms of commercial and general aviation. It costs roughly $4 million a year to operate and maintain Ellington, but the airport brings in only about $2 million in revenues, Machuca said.
Ellington will continue offering such general aviation services; a space port further complements the commercial flights from Bush Intercontinental and Hobby airports. Machuca said it also provides infrastructure that will be necessary in the near future.
Machu ca and Di az said the possibilities of horizontal-launching spacecraft in Houston include taking tourists into space,transporting people around the world in a fraction of the time, launching small satellites into orbit and conducting zero-gravity experiments.
In the near future, the Houston Space port’ s agreement with Sierra Nevada Corp. means its Dream Chaser spacecraft could land at Ellington. Last year, Sierra Nevada received a contract with NASA to deliver car goto the International Space Station.
Officials are confident this space port will keep Houston integral to the space industry.
“One hundred years later ,” Machu ca said ,“we are proving thatHouston, again, is acting very smart by re purposing this airport.”