Virginia Governor Tim Kaine is expected to announce his annual executive state budget request to the money committees of the Virginia state legislatuve on December 17th. He is expected to include an additional $10-million in bonding authority for the Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority to aid the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport.
The bond funds are needed for: (a) the Horizontal Integration Facility and (b) the cryogenic fueling system to enhance the state-owned launch pad infrastructure. The Commonwealth of Virginia will be committed to a total of $26 million using its bonding authority with $16 of the $26 million being approved last year for the Virginia facility co-located at the NASA Wallops Island Flight Facility.
Orbital Sciences Corporation is building the Taurus 2 booster to launch re-supply to the International Space Station using a new launch pad at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport facilities beginning in late 2010.
Virginians are urged to contact members of the Senate and House of Delegates in Richmond with support for the bonding authority in what has been one of the NewSpace stories of the year 2008. With the NASA COTS rebid and the ensuing competition among private launch firms and commercial launch pad sites, the Virginia-based Orbital and the Virginia spaceport have forged to the front of the new commercial space era.
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