Spaceport might make Japan a quick commute - Hawaii News

Great idea, except Hilo airport will be skipped because of their anti-business stance with raising holding room rates to absurd levels.

Wow! Suborbital flights taking off from the Big Island! These rocket planes fly higher than the international boundry located between the Earth and Space which is known as the Karman Line. It's hard to believe jet fuel, even synthetic jet fuel, doesn't harm the environment, but I guess we'll take their word for it until the EIS and EA reports come out. I'm just wondering how the state will come up with $500,000 for the FAA/AST licensing. I'm also wondering how many "high-end" tourists can come up with $200,000 for the tickets?

They talk about shelling out $200,000 as if it were chump change. I guess the economy ain't as bad as we thought it was. Or maybe there are still many wealthy dudes out there with loads of cash to burn. At least the $200 K pricetag is alot cheaper than what some pay for when they take $20 million orbital flights.

$200,000 here...$200,000 there...pretty soon yer talkin' real money.

I would go if I had the spare pocket change. It would be a nice view on a clear day. I would hope that all the anti-missile systems in and around Pearl Harbor were on safe mode during my re-entry.

Eddie Aikau would go.

Breakfast on Maui, Coffee in Tokyo, Brunch on Mars and Happy hour on Venus. As Venus is the hottest planet in the solar system so book me up.

Bar hopping on Venus. Wow!

After reading the descriptions on their website, and if the vehicle ends up looking anything like the "artist's rendering" -- I will be very interested to see if it survives reentry.

Hybrid HTHL (horizontal takeoff/landing) jet+rocket designs have been envisioned before, but it's hard to close the technological case for them. That's one reason Rutan went with a jet mothership/rocket spaceship design.

Some space tourism companies will eventually get off the ground. Hawaii would be a good venue for these flights, but not all technologies will fit well with our situation. Vertical takeoff / rocket-only systems will require a dedicated spaceport. Rocket and sonic-boom noise will be an issue. HTHL vehicles like this one possibly could use long runways on existing airports.

Let's not hold our breath for transPacific rocket shuttles. The issues involved in long suborbital flights are almost as daunting as those for full-orbital flights.

Who are the morons proposing to waste another $500,000 of taxpayers money? Maybe we could put them all on a rocket for a one-way trip to the Moon. And the Director of Aerospace Development and his staff should be laid off immediately. What do they do? Sit in their offices and thrown paper airplanes back and forth.

The Kauai folks are already up no -- we don't want any Spaceport or Super-rockets. Where's the EIS??? Sue. Sue. Sue.

Has anybody seen my bridge?

The Kauai surf protesters will need to buy rocket packs to protest that SpaceFerry.

There are many people in the world who earn $200,000/month,$200,000/week, or even $200,000/day. Dare one say $200,000/hour? I can't even imagine that, I'm getting dizzy, but billionares manke that much.

WHY do HAWAII TAX-PAYERS have to PAY $500,000 for this???

If it is SO GREAT and PROFITABLE- why aren't the people running this business pay for it?

This seems like a total SCAM on Hawaii Tax-Payers during what is going to be a very BIG and LONG ECONOMIC DEPRESSION!

Hellina Handbasket wrote:

WHY do HAWAII TAX-PAYERS have to PAY $500,000 for this???
If it is SO GREAT and PROFITABLE- why aren't the people running this business pay for it?
This seems like a total SCAM on Hawaii Tax-Payers during what is going to be a very BIG and LONG ECONOMIC DEPRESSION!

Dats da price of paradise.

another Lingle fiasco

boondoggle
 
–noun
...
3. a project funded by the government out of political favoritism that is of no real value ...

This is another classic case of "white elephant" project that special interest groups in the govt are pushing...and mind you..all at the expense of taxpayers money. Every taxpayer should be OUTRAGED by this ! Half a million dollars for a license & unsubstantiated revenue generation at a time when everyone is trying to tighten their budgets ..state govt included with proposed plans of layoffs, cutting programs, etc. should come to senses that this is not the time to succumb to anymore air heads and empty promises. ENOUGH is ENOUGH with special interest groups running the govt with poor state residents paying for their mistakes! Get the facts straight...show us untainted data from other states that have done this ...before messing with our state's coffer. This is truly OUTRAGEOUS!

let's start at the beginning. can anybody say 'fuel shortage'? exactly where is all the expendable fuel going to come from and how much will regular flights to japan cost us in global warming credits? how much of the burn off will end up in our reefs, air and soil? greed knows no bounds and i guess the backers of this fool's game know just how many suckers can be dazzled by a silver bauble every day, too.

yes, what a blast to travel like that, but not until they figure out a non-polluting, renewable fuel source. to anyone who says we don't have the capability yet, i say, then how in the world did we ever invent the internet? the inventors and the know how is there, we're just too complacent to do what it takes to get serious funding to them. after all, the oil and gas companies wouldn't want that, would they?

Don't worry, it'll eventually die after Lingle and the legislature decide the EIS isn't needed and it goes through the same BS as the ferry.

The new rail route has now been revised and includes the space port...Kapolei resideents must get off and transfer from there to get to Manoa.
hopefully no one will float away...during that time...i wish.....Wildman.

rail is impractical as the space port