Spaceport idea has residents of wide open spaces wary
As a Colorado space travel initiative moves closer to a federal decision on a license to launch, some rural residents on the Eastern Plains are beginning to wonder if they have become guinea pigs in the next chapter of the state’s booming aerospace sector.
Their concerns about future Spaceport Colorado flights out of Adams County’s Front Range Airport run the gamut — from the impacts airspace closures during launches could have on crop dusting operations and Flight for Life emergencies to the potential hazards of a full-scale in-flight disaster that could send pieces of rocket and chunks of a space plane raining down on fields, livestock and homes.
“I don’t think there’s any reason we have to put the peo- ple of eastern Colorado in jeopardy in order for them to
have a glorified carnival ride from Front Range Airport,” said Greg Brophy, former state senator from Wray. “All of the risk is in rural Colorado, and any benefit goes to the Front Range.”
The vision for Spaceport Colorado is as the launch and landing site for space planes, still under development, that would ferry tourists and mini satellites into space. The vehicle would take off like a normal jet and then engage rockets at around 45,000 feet to take passengers or researchers into suborbital space, typically for only 10 to 15 minutes total.
Eventually, the spacecraft would provide speedy suborbital passenger flight from Colorado to places around the globe — like a 90-minute trip from Denver to Tokyo. But perfecting the futuristic concept of horizontal space flight has some living under the proposed launch zone feeling uneasy.
Brophy recently started a Concerned Citizens of the Eastern Plains Facebook page to push for a slowdown in the licensing process for Spaceport, which is expected to get final decision from the Federal Aviation Administration by Aug. 19. He is urging Spaceport and FAA officials to provide more details about the initiative to his fellow plains residents — via public meetings in communities most directly impacted by launch activity — before moving forward on the application.
“We want to be included as actual stakeholders in this permitting process,” the former GOP state senator said, admitting that the affected rural population numbers only in the hundreds.
The deadline for the public comment period on the environmental assessment required for a Spaceport operator license was recently extended from May 25 to June 15.
Mike McCaleb, a rancher who runs more than 500 head of cattle on land near Anton in Washington County, said Spaceport’s launch zone, which runs 100 miles from around Last Chance to western Kansas and 50 miles north to south, puts tiny towns on U.S. 36, such as Joes, Idalia and Lindon, directly under its flight path.
He said the frustration he and his neighbors feel about Spaceport’s plans is illustrative of the enduring rural/ urban divide in Colorado that helped fuel an ultimately unsuccessful effort by 11 rural counties in northeast Colorado to secede from the rest of the state nearly five years ago.
“A lot of people don’t realize that Colorado runs east of Interstate 25, and this is a good example of that,” McCaleb said.
Dave Ruppel, Front Range Airport’s director, said that the FAA would require the closure of airspace “from the ground to infinity” during Spaceport launches but that those nofly directives would only happen once a week for an hour or so at a time.
The impact on aerial spraying operations is uncertain, he said, because most farmers involved in that activity don’t communicate with air traffic control given that they fly so low to the ground.
“Officially, they’re not supposed to be flying, but practically it’s almost impossible to do anything about it because they don’t talk to anybody,” Ruppel said.
In the case of medical emergencies requiring helicopter transport, Ruppel said space launches could be scrubbed at the last minute. And though no one can prevent with 100 percent certainty a catastrophic break-up at altitude, he said, the space planes taking off from Front Range Airport will have to be thoroughly tested and licensed by the FAA before being deemed air-worthy.
“We’re not talking about an experimental aircraft,” Ruppel said. “We’re talking about a licensed, tried and tested vehicle that has been in operation elsewhere.”
The FAA, he said, requires that these kinds of launches happen over sparsely populated areas rather than metropolitan areas, which is why Front Range Airport identified the launch zone it did.
From a broader standpoint, Ruppel said it’s critical that the state remain competitive with the rest of the country, and the world, when it comes to aerospace advancements. At least 10 other states are developing spaceports and Colorado can’t afford to be left out, he said.
The aerospace industry is huge in the state, where there are nearly 170 businesses in the sector and more than 25,000 private sector workers employed, according to the Denver South Economic Development Partnership. That makes Colorado second only to California for the size of its aerospace industry.
“Colorado is a leader — if we want to continue to be competitive in that industry, this is something our competitors have,” Ruppel said.
While eight members of the state’s congressional delegation signed a letter to the FAA in late May urging the agency to grant Spaceport Colorado an operator license as soon as possible, Rep. Ken Buck did not attach his signature to the letter. Like the plains residents he represents in Congressional District 4, Buck wants to make sure everyone’s voice is heard on the matter first.
“The aerospace industry is critical to Colorado’s economy, and a local spaceport would only enhance the industry’s economic importance to our state,” the Republican congressman said in a statement.
“But I also want to ensure that a spaceport doesn’t negatively impact local residents or our air travel industry, so I’m still studying the issue to find a consensus that addresses the needs of all stakeholders.”