Spaceship builders go from laid-off to lift-off

KENNEDY Space Centre is getting back into the business of building spaceships in a commercial deal with Boeing that will bring jobs for laid-off shuttle workers and a fresh future for the iconic spaceport.

In a victory for Nasa and Space Florida, an economic development agency working to keep the Sunshine State at the forefront of the US aerospace industry, one of the shuttle fleet’s redundant processing hangars will be leased to Boeing for the manufacture, assembly and testing of its CST-100 spacecraft.

The reusable capsule is one of four “space taxis” under development by commercial aerospace companies, under contract to Nasa, to replace the shuttle’s role of carrying astronauts to and from the International Space Station or other destinations in low Earth orbit.

Capable of carrying seven crew, it is planned to be ready for test flights in 2015.

“If anyone had any doubts that Kennedy Space Centre would remain open for business, this agreement allowing Space Florida to lay the groundwork for a world-class commercial space industry here should put that notion to rest,” said Nasa deputy administrator, Lori Garver.

CTS-100 – whose letters stand for crew space transportation, while the number represents the 100 kilometre-high Karman Line, the invisible boundary of space – was designed by Boeing in conjunction with Bigelow Aerospace, a company owned by hotel and space entrepreneur Robert Bigelow.

Though the primary aim is to have it operational for Nasa, which is partially funding its development, it is expected to also be pressed into action on a wider commercial basis beyond that, perhaps one day ferrying scientists and tourists to Bigelow’s proposed commercial space station.

Luring Boeing to Kennedy, America’s gateway to space for more than 50 years, heralds some good news for Florida’s space coast region, which has been largely built around Nasa since the launch of America’s human space programme in the 1950s and which has been left economically bereft by the retirement of the shuttle in July.

“Our space coast community has been through a lot,” said congressman Bill Posey. “The retirement of the shuttle hurt.”

The local economic development commission estimates that the CTS-100 programme will ultimately bring a $61 million boost (£38m) for the economy.

The effects will not be immediate; while the target is to take on 550 workers, hiring will take place over the next four years and will go only a small way towards mitigating the 4,000-odd job losses that have occurred at Kennedy in the last two years alone. However, it is hoped that other commercial aerospace companies may follow Boeing’s lead, helping to re-establish the historic spaceport as a leader in the global space industry.