Pacific Spaceport in Keaau?

[leilanidude]

I guess that’s why the Navy sited the the Pacific Missile Range Facility on the south west leeward side of Kauai. But what do they know?
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I guess that they know that a missile attack will come from the west of Hawaii and not from the US mainland? Duh.

[benny]

South Point area would appear to have well over 180 degrees of available launch azimuth without overflying land. Keaau area would be more limited. Of course that mostly applies on orbital trajectories.

One could co-locate it with the Star Visitor Sanctuary I suppose...

Benny

[kalakoa]

South Point area would appear to have well over 180 degrees of available launch azimuth

Residents of that area didn't want a facility "next to their house".

Again -- for the umpteenth time already -- if the Big Island is to be a bedroom community, (or purely agricultural, "breadbasket of the state" and all that), fine, just legislate the relevant code revisions already, stop pretending that "economic diversification" is allowed or even desirable. As it is, we're basically wasting time and money on SUP/EIS/EA processes that never go anywhere.

Kahele, as quoted by bigislandnow:

I would prefer we [the legislature] focus more on the post-disaster recovery from the volcano in terms of finding people housing, creating jobs, rebuilding our agriculture industry… there is so much other work to do.

I have yet to see any substantive effort on this front. "Listening sessions" and "surveys" and "wishlists", a few people in 10x12 "micro-shelters" ... surely we can do better than this.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Kahele:
there is so much other work to do.
...
kalakoa:
I have yet to see any substantive effort on this front.

If they would do that "other work," fine.
But simply as an excuse not to approve other projects, it's pathetic.

[MarkP]

Becoming a player on the world's technical stage IS part of doing all that other good stuff. Hawaii saying no to the TMT and spaceport is like a beggar turning down work.

[SBH]

Leilanidude wrote Duh

Or they don’t want failures raining down on Lihue instead of the ocean which could include top secret technology or even nuclear fuels. Duh.

Perhaps they should move the Marine Corps Base Hawaii from the eastern side of Oahu at Kaneohe Bay to the leeward side in Waianae to prevent a ground invasion from China?

[kalakoa]

Hawaii saying no to the TMT and spaceport is like a beggar turning down work.

Which might be tolerable if there were actually other work, such as that whole "breadbasket of the state" pipedream. (Except that we can't even manage a dairy.)

[leilanidude]

Perhaps they should move the Marine Corps Base Hawaii from the eastern side of Oahu at Kaneohe Bay to the leeward side in Waianae to prevent a ground invasion from China?
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The Marines are part of the Navy, so no, they wouldn't do that. That would be the Army's job...

[glinda]

I wonder, even if this endeavor were to get off the ground, how far will Alaska Aerospace be able to go before the same old "the costs of doing business in Hawaii" (especially when it involves a lot of shipping) proves once again to be prohibitive? How long before our remoteness goes from being an asset to being a liability and poof Alaska Aerospace is shuttered? Or, do we have something so precious, real-estate in reach of that equatorial orbit, that we can anticipate being a player for a long time to come?

And besides, there are a lot of other companies in the space race right now, and the guys that have the really deep pockets are driving the industry hard. When compared to the likes of SpaceX and the other bigger companies jockeying for position, is Alaska Aerospace, who seems to be a fairly lean (under 100mil) company, going to remain competitive against them?

The other question, raised earlier, as to why not partner with the feds and use Barking Sands is one I would love to hear the answer to before any real consideration of building another launch facilities gets too serious.

In order to get in to the space launch game I think the county/state should be leading the way. As they did with geothermal they should study and identify and create an astronomical (or whatever it should be called) sub zone and as such put the effort into identifying where there is a real possibility for this type of endeavor and create zoning for it before we have companies try to do this sort of thing without that initial guidance. But without forward thinking, and acting, politicians we will never be that farsighted again. As it is Harry can say nice things but what is he and the rest of Hawaii county government actually doing?

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

something so precious, real-estate in reach of that equatorial orbit

Yes, it is valuable. Smaller rockets requiring much less fuel can launch into orbit from near the equator. The savings offset terrestrial shipping costs which bring components to Hawaii.


When compared to the likes of SpaceX and the other bigger companies... is Alaska Aerospace... going to remain competitive against them?

The big players launch big rockets, Alaska Aerospace is operating in a niche market for smaller satellites requiring smaller rockets.


what is he (Harry Kim) and the rest of Hawaii county government actually doing?

Good question.
Do we need a rocket scientists on island to figure it out? If we get some, will we discover, in the year of our lord 2019, signs of intelligent life at County of Hawaii offices? From the occasional signals we’ve picked up, we know County buildings are habitable, in a Goldilocks zone, with Goldilocks benefits for those who can get there.