HILO — A public meeting will be held Wednesday in Hilo on a proposed spaceport.
The informational open-house is part of the environmental assessment process for the small satellite launch facility the Alaska Aerospace Corp. is seeking to build on W.H. Shipman land.
It will be held from 5-7 p.m. at the Grand Naniloa hotel.
Written comments will be accepted at the meeting. They also can be submitted until March 6 to PSCH.EA.Project@kfs-llc.com.
Alaska Aerospace Corp., chartered by the state of Alaska, operates a rocket launch site on Kodiak Island.
Representatives say they want to build a launch site on East Hawaii because it can accommodate equatorial launches for companies seeking to place small satellites, primarily for imaging, into orbit.
The site would only be used for commercial purposes, according to Alaska Aerospace Corp.’s CEO.
Up to 24 launches a year would occur on the site, located between the Mauna Loa macadamia nut farm and the ocean.
Peggy Farias, Shipman CEO, said at a meeting in Panaewa recently that the approximately 13-acre site is 3 miles from the nearest Panaewa farm lot and 1.5 miles from Haena beach, also known as Shipman beach. She said Shipman hasn’t decided yet whether to host the facility.
The state Legislature approved spending $250,000 on the EA in 2017, with matching funds from Alaska Aerospace Corp.
According to the state Office of Aerospace, $225,000 was released for the project.
The spaceport would use both liquid and solid fuel rockets.
Rockets could be between 40 and 60 feet in height.
Alaska Aerospace also has looked at potential sites on Guam and Saipan, but considers East Hawaii to be the best location.
For more information, visit www.pscheaproject.com.
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
This island needs to encourage this type of industry. We would be crazy to run these people off. This could be the beginning of a tech industry which would bring other companies and good jobs.
and why not run them off they ran off the super ferry that no environs impact- why would want to try make more jobs because then they would have to quit welfare and ebt.
What this is bad idea for Hawai’i and Hawai’i Island.
1- Any so-called jobs benefits from this proposal would be minimal. The labor-skill sets are not aligned with Hawaii’s local labor supply. In other words, rocket labor would be imported as needed with little economic benefit to the local job seekers.
2- “….Up to 24 launches a year would occur on the site” –that one rocket launch every two weeks. The noise and pollution – emissions from rocket launches are impacts just now being fully understood.
Rocket soot accumulates in the upper stratosphere, where the particles absorb sunlight. This accumulation heats the upper stratosphere, changing chemical reaction rates and likely leading to ozone loss.
“The climate impact of rockets has not really been seriously addressed as yet,” Martin Ross, a senior project engineer for civil and commercial launch projects at The Aerospace Corporation (El Segundo, California), an expert in the field, added, “…with respect to ozone, we now understand that the climate and ozone impacts of rocket exhaust are completely intertwined.”
Hawai’i and our island have great potential for addressing the impacts of global warming and sustainability, inviting and sanctioning a rocket launch business to establish itself on island here is totally incompatible with those goals.
The opponents probably are the same who shoot illegal fireworks all day at New Year, the noise and pollutions – emissions from rocket launches are impacts just now being fully understood.
Not a fan of fireworks and the problems they create as you cited, as well as unintended fires, but a one day a year problem is hardly comparable to 25 plus local rocket launches per year. Or a 8 -12 inches long skyrocket compared to a 60 foot tall multiple stage rocket.
Hope the meeting discussion would be a preface to the EA rather than as a postscript to the EA.
Don’t brother to email Alaska Aerospace Corp with comments on basing a rocket launch base on Hawaii (noted in this article) your email will bounce back with this message:
Subject: Alaska Aerospace Corp. – proposed rocket launch site on Hawaii Island
Error Details
Reported error: 550 5.7.193 UnifiedGroupAgent; Delivery failed because the sender isn’t a group member or external senders aren’t permitted to send to this group.