Spaceport continues upgrades for the future of passenger space travel

BY BELEN WARD BWARD@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM

Expect to see extensive capital upgrades around Colorado Air and Spaceport as it works to bring in new operators and continue with its expansion.

e spaceport will install a fence around the airport perimeter with a control access gate and security cameras. at will be designed to prevent wildlife crossings that interfere with air operations and provide a secure air eld for new operators that did not use the airport due to insu cient security of the air elds and wildlife crossings.

“With anticipation, I would say by the end of the year, we’re planning for the fence and the security project to be completed,” Je Kloska, Colorado Air and Spaceport Director, said.

One of the runaways was recently upgraded by applying a fog seal material to limit deterioration and repainting markings for identi cation on the ground and from the air on runway 17/35, which runs north and south on the east side of the airport. e plan for the future is a larger project to mill over the runaway, which would grind down the top layer and pave a new layer.

According to o cials, that work should cost about $300,000, paid by grant-funded partnership with the State of Colorado Aeronautics Division. e state would provide $270,000, with Adams County, which owns and operates the spaceport, paying $30,000.

Spaceport is born

Adams County Front Range Airport in Watkins began its approved spaceport site operation license through the Federal Aviation Administration for commercial space in August 2018.

It changed its name from Front Range Airport to Colorado Air and Spaceport with plans to change the face of passenger air travel with spaceplanes. Currently, there is 13 FAA licensed spaceport in the United States.

e Colorado Air and Spaceport in Adams County is a horizontal launch and reentry site for public and private travels into space.

O cials say spaceplanes could one day y up to 34,000 feet outside the Earth’s atmosphere, spending about four to eight minutes at their highest ponts. As the Earth rotates, the space plane will y back down and could land in Paris or Europe within 90 minutes.

Reaction Engines, a company based in the United Kingdom, is working at a Colorado Air and Space facility to develop the Sabre engine, a hypersonic engine design.

“Once they develop the engine, they want to build the airframe and an aircraft around it,” Kloska said.

“It is an eventual hypersonic ight point-to-point travel into suborbital ight with potential for low Earth or- bit with satellite delivery into orbit.” e FAA reauthorization bill instructs the FAA to promote U.S. aerospace-related standards globally. It allows the agency to work with foreign partners to simplify the certi cation process for U.S. aircraft. e spaceport is lucky to operate an established airport where some new spaceports must develop the area and focus on just aerospace.

Funding is one of the biggest challenges for the 13 spaceports. U.S. Senators John Hickenlooper, John Cornyn, Ben Ray Lujan, and Roger Wicker introduced a bipartisan bill in June to focus on developing commercial spaceports through the Federal Aviation Administration FAA and Spaceport Transportation Infrastructure matching grant program.

Kloska said they have been working with their congressional delegation and several groups who support and aligned with commercial spaceports, such as the global spaceport alliance and legislative folks.

“Commercial space has been growing signi cantly in the last couple of years and will continue to grow and to be able to sustain the signi cant future growth in the United States.

“As a country, we need to start looking at increasing its spaceport capabilities. It’s why the bill is introduced to fund commercial spaceports,” Kloska said.

Kloska said the primary intent and could be wrong is to add the FAA reauthorization bill. ey would be happy either way or whether it’s a standalone bill.

“It makes the most sense to be part of the reauthorization bill because its aerospace and spaces go hand in hand with what FAA does-aviation, and they do base licensing,” Kloska said.

“We are excited to see that, and as things move forward with the current spaceports and armed forces as the country as a whole it needs safe, reliable access to space,” Kloska said.

Kloska said we are in a golden age of space travel, similar to the 60s when John F. Kennedy said we were going to the moon.

“We went to the moon it was all done-we beat the Russians to itmaking that achievement, but once we got there- we stopped going,” Kloska said.

Kloska said we nally realized that the next logical step is establishing a base on the moon and then looking at Mars.

“Getting out of our immediate area of the Earth and the Moon here- is important-you know- going into the future,” Kloska said.

“We want to be a dual aviation and aerospace facility. Also, we want to support and be a major reliever airport for the Denver area for recreation and business aircraft and, relieve all that general arrival delay tra c from Denver International and on the other hand have all the aerospace tra c so that’s our vision for the future,” Kloska said.