Spaceport America

Next week I will be heading up the cultural resources survey of what will probably become the first Commercial Spaceport in the United States. There are some private entities, such as the one near Van Horn Texas, run by Jeff Bezos, the Amazon guy.

This place in New Mexico holds some promise because of its geographical location. It is situated in the middle of nowhere, in an area of up planet rotation from White Sands Missile Range. Thus, if crashed occur, they would fall on an equally barren piece of desert.

The work is being done for an Environmental Impact statement or EIS. Already the project is drawing fire from a couple of groups, including those who don't want a tax levied on them to support right guys going into space at their expense. Another group is irritated because the Camino Real (the Spanish Royal Road extending from Mexico to Santa Fe) will be somehow be harmed by the presence of the rockets. I see their point, though much of the Camino Real is under houses and towns already. The ruts of the old Spanish Carretas can still be clearly seen in places with Yahoo maps. The Google Earth picture of the area is pretty poor.

To me, there are a lot better sites in the areas they want to build launch pads and landing strips on than that old road anyways. Previous surveys have shown that the site density is pretty high out there already, and we're getting prepped for a lot more sites this time.

Whether the thing actually happens is still up in the air. Public comment could always bring the whole scenario to a crashing halt. Either way I get paid, and we get to learn a lot of interesting stuff about the local archaeology. What we know now is that there are sites dating to 9,000 - 10,000 years old, Archaic sites, Cermaic period sites, Spanish Colonial period sites, Historic American Ranches, and now the future: rockets.