Abu Dhabi one competitor in the race to space

As Abu Dhabi becomes the latest aspirant to unveil plans for a spaceport, it is worth remembering that the number of countries that have announced plans for commercial launch sites exceeds the number of space tourists who have taken off from private spaceports.

But that is deterring few from entering this new space race.

"We need to make space accessible just like we conquered the air one century ago," says Abdul Nasser El Hakim, the minister of economic development for the Caribbean island nation of Curaçao, which hopes to have a spaceport by 2014.

Yet the task of launching a spacecraft remains a Herculean feat - and building a financially successful launchpad may be harder still.

When mankind first ventured into space, the pioneering flights could lift off from only a few sites - all government-funded because of the huge costs involved.

These include Cape Canaveral in Florida, the Guiana Space Centre in French Guiana, and the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, a former Soviet missile range that became the launch site of Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the Earth.

So far, space tourists have had to use existing rocket launchpads as they hitch rides to the International Space Station.

But as the private-sector space industry seeks to reduce its costs, the need for spaceports has grown.

Launch sites announced include locations in the US state of New Mexico, Curaçao, Scotland, Sweden, Ras Al Khaimah and Abu Dhabi, the new entrant announced by Virgin Galactic last week.

Is the large number of countries seeking spaceports a signal that the barriers to entry are falling?

Not by a long shot, says Andrew Nelson, the chief operating officer of XCOR Aerospace, a commercial space company based in California. "In theory, if you can get yourself a space plane and implement a new legal system, and find the right airport length, and air traffic management, and someone willing to take the risk with the capital - then no, there's no barriers to entry," he says.

Curaçao believes its picture-perfect shores and its position near the equator - the optimum location for launching rockets into space - give it an advantage over locales such as New Mexico. Thus far, it has been attracting interest from the United States, Latin America and Europe.

But even the perfect launch location is not an ironclad guarantee of success.

Sea Launch is one example of how a spaceport's safety record can make or break its financial success.

The mobile launch platform, a converted drilling rig in the Pacific Ocean, was founded by a consortium of Russian, Norwegian, Ukranian and American investors - including the aircraft maker Boeing. Its ability to be repositioned allowed it to be placed in the best position to launch satellites, allowing it to launch 29 rockets successfully since 1999.

But the failure in 2007 of a Dutch satellite launch, which turned the launchpad into a fireball, significantly harmed the company's financial viability, according to court filings. After the global financial crisis struck, a liquidity crisis left Sea Launch unable to reimburse investors for cost overruns linked to the blast.

Even though launches continued, the operating company sought US Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from creditors in 2009. The company re-emerged under Russian ownership a year later.

The industry believes that it can crack the safety problem - and reduce costs - with the ability to reuse space planes after launch.

Building a rocket for every launch is hugely expensive.

But reusing a space plane eliminates much of that cost and also allows engineers to tweak designs - and potentially mass-produce the vehicles.

"If you want to be serious about access to space, you have to reuse the rockets," says Christopher Bauer, a vice president at SpaceX.

The space-flight company, established by Elon Musk, the billionaire founder of PayPal, is currently sending a mission to the International Space Station.

"We want to be able to build rockets like people have automobiles," says Mr Bauer.

ghunter@thenational.ae

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