Space puts west Texas on the map

Submitted by acohill on Thu, 07/06/2006 - 09:39

The emerging Space Economy just keeps chugging along quietly, even though there has not been much news breaking into the mainstream media. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, continues to fund Blue Origin, his space tourism firm. The company is building a reusable launch vehicle (RLV) quite different from Bert Rutan's SpaceShipOne design. The Blue Origin vehicle looks like something from the old 1950s scifi movies. It takes off and lands vertically, and is based on a NASA design that received extensive testing in the 1990s.

If you have ever been to west Texas, you know that there is not much there upon which to base an economy, but it is perfect for a spaceport. It is a great example of thinking outside the box for economic development, and trying to leverage what you do have in terms of local assets, rather than simply continuing to rely primarily on industrial recruitment, which was last effective as a primary economic development strategy in 1983.