The Virginia General Assembly's BUDGET CONFERENCE COMMITTEE has agreed to appropriate 7.5 MILLION PER YEAR to operate the VIRGINIA COMMERCIAL SPACEFLIGHT AUTHORITY (VCSFA) along with authorizations for capital acquisition from undesignated VDOT balances. The appropriation provides a significant boost to Virginia's commercial spaceport development over the balance of the decade.
Many state policy observers believe the two-year budget conference committee passed state budget WILL BE ADOPTED LATER THIS MONTH by a vote of a majority of the Legislature. The vote, expected April 17, 2012, follows two contentious budget proposals killed by partisan party line 20-to-20 votes in the Virginia State Senate on unrelated issues.
Last month, the VIRGINIA GENERAL ASSEMBLY approved legislation reorganizing the VCSFA by downsizing the board of directors from 13-to-9 members, authorizes the use of 7.5 MILLION annually to support the capital needs, maintenance, and operating costs of facilities owned and operated by the Authority and, technical amendments to the possible new TAX TRANSFER REVENUE STREAM from commercial human spaceflight sold by Virginia-based SPACE ADVENTURES. The measure is now on GOVERNOR BOB MCDONNELL'S DESK to sign or recommend amendments prior to mid-April 2012. The measure is expected to become law July 1, 2012.
Later this year, Virginia-based ORBITAL SCIENCES CORPORATION will test the NEW ANTARES BOOSTER to carry commercial payloads to the International Space Station with subsequent cargo missions in six-month intervals thereafter through 2017 from a new launch pad. In addition, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at Wallops Island, Va. will host launches of the MINOTAUR-1 and Minotaur-5 to loft a USAF OPERATIONALLY RESPONSIVE SPACE (ORS-3) satellite and the NASA LADEE MOON mission, both in 2013.
Meanwhile, Florida's legislature has appropriated a one-time 10-million boost to SPACE FLORIDA with an ANNUAL 4-MILLION to expand commercial space developments. FLORIDA HAS VIEWED VIRGINIA as a POTENTIAL COMPETITOR FOR HUMAN SPACEFLIGHT OPERATIONS in this decade to the extent of FILING OBJECTIONS to an environmental impact statement relating to a human spaceflight study at the NASA Flight Facility, where the Virginia commercial spaceport is co-located.
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT is injecting millions of dollars into the FLORIDA SPACE LAUNCH INFRASTRUCTURE for commercial activities and the multi-billion dollar civil SPACE LAUNCH SYSTEM (SLS). The SLS is to carry humans beyond low earth orbit in the next decade.
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