Could Host First Flight By 2007

Good news for backers of a proposed western Oklahoma spaceport. The FAA Tuesday announced its approval of an operator's license for the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority to build a launch facility in the tiny town of Burns Flat.

"We are the planet's newest gateway to space," Bill Khourie, executive director of the Oklahoma Space Development Authority, told MSNBC.com after the FAA's announcement on Tuesday.

MSNBC reports the FAA approval gives Oklahoma the early edge over competing spaceports in Calfornia, New Mexico, Florida and Wisconsin. And while that doesn't necessarily mean anything will be launched from the Sooner state anytime... um, soon -- the authority still needs separate FAA permission for that -- it's a good place to start...  and a welcome one at that for supporters of the idea that government shouldn't have a monopoly on space travel.

Supporters of the Okie spaceport want to start suborbital tourist flights as soon as possible... and at the top of that list is David Urie, executive vice president of Rocketplane Limited.

"[The approval]'s extremely important, because it means we have a place to fly," Urie said. "It was an absolute necessity for our plans that they've achieved this licensing."

Rocketplane is pushing ahead with its plan to market a modified Learjet -- equipped with a rocket engine (above) -- for suborbital travel, with its first test flight scheduled in 2007.

Urie added that watching the spaceport's approval process go forward may give his company added insight into its own future plans to win FAA certification.

"Interestingly enough, we supported the site licensing with data that were relevant to both the environmental [impact] and safety," Urie said. "The work that has been done in that regard is to some extent applicable to our licensing."

FMI: www.okspaceport.state.ok.us/