Georgia voters kill Camden spaceport project
The residents of Camden County in Georgia yesterday voted by a margin of 72% to 28% to end the county’s project to build a project there.
There are hints that county officials might still try to proceed, having already spent more than $10 million on the project. There are also strong indications that if they do, they will be blocked legally on many fronts.
What this vote suggests is that Americans continue to be uninterested in more commerce, and are easily convinced to put environmental claims first in any political battle. The opponents of the spaceport had said that the spaceport threatened local wildlife — something that clearly doesn’t happen based on more than a half century of data at Cape Canaveral — and the voters in Camden were quick to agree. The voters also probably had a bit of not-in-my-backyard behind their vote as well.
Whether Camden would have succeeded as a spaceport of course is unknown. There are a lot of such facilities being proposed and built, and it is unclear if their number fits the actual launch demand.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
The residents of Camden County in Georgia yesterday voted by a margin of 72% to 28% to end the county’s project to build a project there.
There are hints that county officials might still try to proceed, having already spent more than $10 million on the project. There are also strong indications that if they do, they will be blocked legally on many fronts.
What this vote suggests is that Americans continue to be uninterested in more commerce, and are easily convinced to put environmental claims first in any political battle. The opponents of the spaceport had said that the spaceport threatened local wildlife — something that clearly doesn’t happen based on more than a half century of data at Cape Canaveral — and the voters in Camden were quick to agree. The voters also probably had a bit of not-in-my-backyard behind their vote as well.
Whether Camden would have succeeded as a spaceport of course is unknown. There are a lot of such facilities being proposed and built, and it is unclear if their number fits the actual launch demand.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Who wouldn’t want to be able to take a short drive to watch the occasional rocket launch into space from their own community!? What kind of boring buzzkills live in Camden?
Bored housewives afraid a few rumbles will ruin their spring-taculars where they can swap lawn-boys along with their mint julips.
Little better than NASCAR fans-you know…evil smelling…beer swilling, foul-mouthed shirtless drunks….and their husbands.
Jeff
We welcome them all to celebrate ? in Virginia to watch Rockets Fly ?
And stop for the annual Assateague Island pony ? swim, all near Wallops Island Launch Complex. Some say the ponys have been around here since the Spanish lost them in the 1500s.
Great Nature Areas both under USG and Commonwealth protection.
Whose Environmental record meets that of the Cape Complex in Florida.
Wallops first use July 4, 1945 for an American built & designed ? rocket
Our Great Eastern Shore Awaits !!!
https://www.nps.gov/asis/index.htm
Very strange. A spaceport would clearly benefit the area economically. Would raise the value of every homeowners property.
But you forget these homeowner associations get bent out of shape if your mailbox is too big-let alone fly a rocket. Hillbilly Hamptons.
As a lifelong Georgian and a resident of a semi-rural county, let me say that the objections to the spaceport are most likely not about the environment. Probably, the objections are more about the disruption of their lives. There’s a similar resistance to a huge electric vehicle factory in Morgan and Walton counties. Sometime, read about what happened in Seattle when Apple landed there. The entertainment value of a spaceport doesn’t compensate for the daily impact on their lives.
Henry Lee, do you mean Microsoft rather than Apple?
Or maybe they looked at the boondoggle faux “space port” built in New Mexico and asked themselves why taxpayers should be paying for such a thing.
This wasn’t about a private company wanting to build a spaceport at their own expense, it was about the county paying for it and hoping that customers would show up. I believe it would have been oriented toward small, expendable small-sat launchers (at least to start with), which is a dubious market niche likely to be completely destroyed by Starship, Neutron, and/or others.
Jeff Wright,
What is the matter?
You do not like when the unwashed masses do not accept what their governing betters decide for them?
Local rejected it because it was their tax dollars being invested, for a site that could, just could, see 12 launches a year. That’s not much. Hard to see the ROI in a,reasonable time. I doubt noise was a an issue, as they used to do engine testing there. Beside noise, there are a few houses down range. While Boca Chica residents tolerate occasion evacuations, it seems these residents do not care for it. It is their house. Their choice.
It also tends to royally annoy voters when efforts are made to circumvent their rights to decide things. Major efforts were made to block the vote from happening. In the end that cost them. They went about it the wrong way.
But you stick with you’d ad hominems. I am sure your right…
What’s wrong with swilling beer? As a fraternity brother, I take exception. Or racing cars? (I still hold a SCCA competition license – yes, I’m a qualified race car driver. Raced Triumphs and Mustangs). Your post shows you to be ignorant and bigoted. Why not just call them Deplorables and be done with it?