March 9th, 2009
Your Hawaii vacation could soon include a space launch!!
This weekend I stumbled across some Hawaii vacation information that was out of this world!
Rocketplane-Kistler (RpK) is advancing the idea of tourist space launches from the islands of Hawaii. Space flight participants will be sent up 330,000 feet to the edge of outer space!!!
RpK believes that Hawaii’s many tourists will make the island an attractive location for the flights. "The flying weather is great, and the views of the entire island chain and the ocean from space will be spectacular," Charles Lauer, vice president of RpK.
RpK is in talks with the state about developing a space-themed education and training facility at Kalaeloa which would support space flights between Honolulu and Kona airports. It also wants to collaborate with the University of Hawaii on space related research.
The RpK XP spacecraft is expected to start test launching the vehicle from Oklahoma in 2009. Hawaii would have to first gain an FAA-AST spaceport license. Obtaining that license is among a number of aerospace measures making their ways through this year’s Hawaii Legislature.
Supposedly, these commercial spaceplanes aren’t exactly huge polluters (no more than your average airliner) and the launches would be a great source of revenue for the islands in the form of taxes and tourism. And then there’s the possibility of accessing Hawaii via suborbital flightpaths from California and Japan. Flight-time from Hawaii to mainland US could be slashed from five hours to 90 minutes – which means you could leave your house in Los Angeles & be on Waikiki beach in about two hours!
Hopefully they will have kama’aina rates!!