Miami Spaceport

One of the things MVB has been advocating since its short time in cyberspace is for Miami to build the world's first spaceport here and here.

Compared to the competition, we could do it relatively inexpensively and quickly by using the existing jetport lying fallow 35-miles west of Miami in the Everglades. Unfortunately, it looks like we won't be first-- even though ex-Governor Bush had formed a committee to look into making a spaceport a reality in Florida. (As an aside, part of MVB's mission statement besides using the blog to pick up girls is to not only advocate "things" but to actually act on those ideas. In that regard, we got in touch months ago with Bush's point man for the spaceport. We told him about the jetport. He didn't know it existed. We sent him pictures and info and have heard nothing since-- which is normal afterall when you consider that this is the "Rodney Dangerfield of Blogs").

Originally, we thought people were going to be launched into space from airport runways at commercial airports. It turns out these Virgin Galactic rocket planes need lots of room around them, hence the first regularly scheduled spaceflights for civilians will in all likelihood take place somewhere in New Mexico because of the open space and the fact that the state is already constructing a spaceport. Too bad for us because the jetport has the required runway length (over 10,000 feet) and open space-- with the Atlantic Ocean thrown in for good measure. We thought since Sir Richard Branson has a home here, maybe that would be enough to rustle up some interest. Guess not.

Still, in hopes of keeping the idea alive regarding Miami becoming one of the few cities in the world that has a spaceport, we thought our two loyal readers might enjoy this way cool Virgin Galactic video and animation.

UpDate (12/17): It looks like the Feds are a little nervous about flying civilians into space. The FAA will require future space tourists to sign a waiver promising not to sue the government should anything go wrong.