Well, this is certainly ... different.
LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) _ Dona Ana County voters have set the stage for New Mexico to become a launch pad for space tourism. Voters went to the polls Tuesday to decide whether to approve a quarter of 1 percent gross receipts tax to raise an estimated $49 million for the state-supported Spaceport America in the desert between Las Cruces and Truth or Consequences. A final but unofficial tally of the votes announced by the county Friday showed the tax leading by 270 votes out of 17,770 cast. The Dona Ana County Commission will meet Tuesday to certify the results. The tax would go into effect next Jan. 1.
''This positive vote for the spaceport ballot initiative means America's new frontier begins in southern New Mexico,'' Gov. Bill Richardson said. ''I'm proud that the people of Dona Ana County chose a high-tech and high-wage future, with better math and science education, and expanded opportunities for young men and women right here in New Mexico.''
Supporters described the election as a make-or-break vote for the $198 million project.
The spaceport will cover 27 square miles of desert near White Sands Missile Range, where the U.S. launched its first rocket after World War II. Its anchor tenant would be British millionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic. Branson envisions starting suborbital rocket flights, at about $200,000 a person, in 2009. Eventually, the spaceport could offer trips into orbit and beyond....
Seriously, I'm really not sure what to think about this. On the one hand, the state really is too poor for this. On the other hand, with NASA about to go out of the space flight business until the next generation moon landers are ready (and when did our lives become so "Back to the Future", anyway?), perhaps this is the only way we're going to maintain any sort of presence in space. There's no doubt that, if it has to deal with commercial interests to launch satellites and other things, the US government might prefer to deal with one with a domestic presence, at least.
One wonders what this will do for Richardson's putative presidential campaign. In state, hes already engendered a certain amount of resentment because his presidential ambitions have kept him out of state a fairly healthy amount of time, and may have contributed to undoing some of his desired legislation, because he wasn't there to strongarm it through. Out of state, it's hard to imagine that this will do anything but raise eyebrows. (There's also the small fact that he's apparently raised slightly more than bupkis in the way of major campaign funds -- but only slightly more.)
Posted by iain at April 08, 2007 01:21 AM
