Countdown to Launch in Houston

This article presents an overview of the plan of the upcoming spaceport in Houston. The planned spaceport in Houston is designed to support vehicles that lift off and land horizontally, like conventional aircraft. Future expansion could see the construction of a passenger terminal. Instead of rockets, the plan is for the spaceport to be the take-off and landing spot for horizontally launched suborbital vehicles, such as Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo and XCOR’s Lynx. Horizontally launched vehicles have many advantages, according to Sirisha Bandla, assistant director of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation. The XCOR Lynx is a Concept X vehicle that can take off and land up to four times in one day. The industry wants to reduce that time to 12 to 18 months, including the six months it takes the Federal Aviation Administration to review an application.