Comments on: Texas Space Commission hands $5 million to proposed spaceport in the middle of Texas https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/texas-space-commission-hands-5-million-to-proposed-spaceport-in-the-middle-of-texas/ Mon, 04 Aug 2025 04:23:42 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Jeff Wright https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/texas-space-commission-hands-5-million-to-proposed-spaceport-in-the-middle-of-texas/#comment-1614227 Mon, 04 Aug 2025 04:23:42 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=115846#comment-1614227 A white paper
https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/IF/PDF/IF13071/IF13071.1.pdf

]]> By: Jeff Wright https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/texas-space-commission-hands-5-million-to-proposed-spaceport-in-the-middle-of-texas/#comment-1612783 Tue, 29 Jul 2025 08:55:32 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=115846#comment-1612783 Agreed

]]> By: Robert Zimmerman https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/texas-space-commission-hands-5-million-to-proposed-spaceport-in-the-middle-of-texas/#comment-1612769 Tue, 29 Jul 2025 06:10:35 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=115846#comment-1612769 In reply to Todd Brown.

Todd Brown: I didn’t play the name-changing game when the left played it. I don’t play that game when the right plays it.

It has been the Gulf of Mexico for centuries. I respect history.

]]> By: Todd Brown https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/texas-space-commission-hands-5-million-to-proposed-spaceport-in-the-middle-of-texas/#comment-1612763 Tue, 29 Jul 2025 05:49:51 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=115846#comment-1612763 Gulf of America

]]> By: John https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/texas-space-commission-hands-5-million-to-proposed-spaceport-in-the-middle-of-texas/#comment-1612571 Sun, 27 Jul 2025 20:15:52 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=115846#comment-1612571 Old Map (G)

]]> By: Jeff Wright https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/texas-space-commission-hands-5-million-to-proposed-spaceport-in-the-middle-of-texas/#comment-1612486 Sun, 27 Jul 2025 07:44:51 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=115846#comment-1612486 Go a bit farther West—and it is—what?—all Air Force bases to the Pacific.

]]> By: Joe https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/texas-space-commission-hands-5-million-to-proposed-spaceport-in-the-middle-of-texas/#comment-1612397 Sat, 26 Jul 2025 21:23:17 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=115846#comment-1612397 I long time ago I was at the site in Balmorhea. Not a lot there. At the time the oil fields were being repopulated with working rigs and the launch angles for suborbital were severely restricted. We took a pass on the site because of the difficulties. I don’t see any way they could safely have vertical orbital launches.

]]> By: Dick Eagleson https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/texas-space-commission-hands-5-million-to-proposed-spaceport-in-the-middle-of-texas/#comment-1612390 Sat, 26 Jul 2025 20:30:58 +0000 https://behindtheblack.com/?p=115846#comment-1612390 There may well be at least a bit of “customary graft” involved but I suspect that is entirely incidental. Midland, one should recall, got designated a spaceport some years ago in anticipation of HTHL suborbital flights by the late XCOR’s late Lynx vehicle. One can appreciate that the city fathers are loathe to yield this distinction.

$5 million isn’t going to get Midland – or Balmorhea as the case may be – into the orbital launch business, but it might get them into the straight-up-and-down suborbital launch business, even if at initially modest scale. TX, it should be recalled, already has one such facility within its borders – the Bezos “ranch” near Van Horn from which New Shepard operates.

Midland may never launch anything to orbit, but it could easily host launches to above the Karman Line – perhaps even, someday, with people as passengers. The precedent for that is already well-established not all that many miles to the west.

Van Horn, in fact, is only about half as far from Balmorhea as is Midland. Given the near total lack of fixed population between the two sites, perhaps each could one day host launches that land at the other.

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