Ground has already been broken at the Mojave Spaceport on a huge hanger, funded by Paul Allen of Microsoft and X-Prize fame.
Congressman Kevin McCarthy toured the site Friday, right next door to where SpaceShip One made history. This huge space vehicle is being built by Mojave-based Scaled Composites, also of X-Prize fame.
Paul Allen's new company, "Stratolaunch Systems" says this new vehicle will be the biggest aircraft ever flown, using six of the biggest aircraft engines in use today, and its being built right here in Kern County.
Stratolaunch, in the eyes of Paul Allen and Burt Rutan, represents a quantum leap for civilian space flight. There are renderings of the envisioned launch vehicle that will carry the next generation of spaceships into the sky before they rocket in to orbit.
"What they are doing here are cutting edge. It helps the entire country, its finding investments. Richard Branson putting a quarter billion, you get your own Americans putting in $500 million, a half a billion investment, that's a good place to be,'" said McCarthy.
This new hanger is on a 19-acre site in Mojave. Scores of local jobs will be created for engineers, support staff, and construction workers.
"Kevin Mickey (Scaled Composites) said standing on the dirt, he has 100 job openings right now at Scaled Composites, 60 technicians,40 engineers for one project, that's just one company." said Stuart Witt.
The Federal Aviation Administration regulates the fledgling commercial space flight industry. But, some fear the government may interfere with the development of space tourism, pushing new regulations that could hinder research.
McCarthy wants to impose an eight-year "learning period" for the FAA before it considers new regulations on commercial space flight.
"The continuation of this industry and not let the federal government regulate it before it has a chance to get going. And, that's the new commercial space industry that is pure entrepreneurial funded." said Witt.
Paul Allen wants to see his Stratolauncher flying within five years, in the sky over Kern County.
Stuart Witt says in the last ten years the Air and Spaceport has spawned more than 2,000 jobs and the innovations sparked here will carry generations of civilian astronauts into the heavens for years to come.
