Полеты в космос с каждым днем становятся все easier and more accessible. For those who are ready to lay out fabulous sums in just a few short minutes spent outside the atmosphere, the United States Federal Aviation Administration issued a handy map on which all US space centers are marked. The list of existing federal sites is supplemented with information on private objects intended for launching spacecraft.
Launch pads are used to runorbital or suborbital spacecraft. They provide integration of launch components, provide fuel, maintain aircraft and set the payload on them. Spaceports provide an opportunity to make vertical and horizontal takeoff and landing. From the launch site, the vehicle moves through an area called the launch area, which is usually equipped with tracking and telemetry equipment. It is necessary to monitor the vehicle until it is successfully launched into orbit or returned to Earth. These systems can also be used to search for reusable stages.
The United States Federal Aviation and Commercial Space Agency licenses the country's private launch sites.
По состоянию на конец 2015 г.In the United States, there were 19 active launch sites, of which 8 are federal, 9 are commercial, managed by government agencies in partnership with private enterprises, and one belongs to the university. Of these, 4 are designed to launch into Earth orbit, 9 are used only for suborbital launches, and 5 are universal.
In addition, there are 3 unlicensed objects, withwhich may be launches licensed or authorized vehicles. Since the companies owning these cosmodromes use their own production rockets, they do not need to obtain permission for the launch pad. These include:
US spaceports that currently existtime can be divided into three large groups. They are located on the Pacific coast, in the south-south-west, as well as on the central and southern Atlantic coast of the country.
Космодромы США в Тихом океане находятся на двух launch pads. The first of these is the Sea Launch platform, which was originally a joint Norwegian-Russian-Ukrainian-American. After the bankruptcy of 2009, Energia private rocket and space corporation from Russia became its main owner. For a while, the US used a platform to launch commercial satellites.
The second is the Reagan test site -located on the Marshall Islands. The launch pad is located on the atolls of Kwajalein and Aur, as well as Wake Island. Used as a testing ground for ballistic missiles, missile defense systems, space and meteorological research programs, as well as for tracking satellites. On the island of Omelek is a commercial spaceport for SpaceX.
Alaska also has US launch sites.The Kodiak launch complex, which specializes in launching satellites into polar orbit, and the Poker Flat research site, owned by the University of Alaska Geophysical Institute, launches rockets with scientific equipment to conduct measurements in the upper atmosphere.
«Кадьяк» площадью 1500 га является единственным high latitude launch complex of the United States. At 54th latitude on the island of Kodiak is located Nerrow - the cape of the US cosmodrome, which specializes in polar launches used for launching satellites into orbit. The best-of-its-kind facility includes two platforms (one for orbital flights, and another for suborbital), a 17-story building for assembling rockets, and a clean room for preparing satellites. The complex is building the third stage, which will allow to produce incredibly quick launches - from delivery to start no more than 24 hours will pass.
In addition to two US Air Force bases“Vandenberg” and “Edwards”, which are also used for experimental launches, in California are located two cosmodrome, “California” and “Mojave”. And they are really impressive! In 2004, the first successful privately financed space launch of the SpaceShipOne took place from Mojave. In California, the California Space Office was also based, which had virtually no power and therefore ceased to exist.
At the Vandenberg airbase in Lompoc, stateCalifornia, since 1999, operates the oldest licensed commercial spaceport in the United States, whose name - the California spaceport. Moreover, it is the only fully commercialized facility in the country - it works without government funding. The main launch site is the 8th space launch complex or SLC-8. It is able to provide both polar and ballistic trajectories using small accelerating blocks of the Minotaur class.
Built on the basis of the airfield of the Navy andartillery range of the Second World War, the aerospace "Mojave" was one of the first test sites for private spacecraft. Starting with a rocket program in the early 1990s, it became the base for the most famous names in the history of commercial suborbital and orbital flights, including SpaceShipOne, which received the Ansari X prize in 2004, XCOR Aerospace, Masten Space Systems, and Orbital Science Corp.
Here, every US state with a spaceport.New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma all have their launch pads, with New Mexico dominating. On the "Enchanting Land" (the official nickname of the state) built the spaceport "America", which sometimes sends tourists into space.
Desert of Jordana del Moerto, New Mexico -This is the place where the US space center America is located, becoming the world's first specially built commercial launch pad and base for private aerospace companies Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, UP Aerospace and Armadillo Aerospace. Certified by LEED, the facility covers about 62 thousand square meters. m and includes two double-height hangar area of 4400 square meters. m and flight control center. The spaceport can be reached by charter from the nearby town of Truth-Or-Consicuenses.
At the White Sands Missile Range, everyone is experiencingtypes of large and explosive things, and sometimes launch them into near space. In addition, the world's first nuclear test site was located here. But this is not a very interesting place.
Located in the middle of the Oklahoma wasteland,the spaceport has one of the longest runways in North America (4115 m). In combination with an empty sky without flying airplanes, it became the first in the United States to which military and flight restrictions do not apply, which is ideal for commercial use of vehicles with horizontal takeoff and landing. Armadillo Aerospace is also based here, although its prototype lunar spacecraft is designed only for vertical takeoff and landing. Among other things, there is even a 9-hole golf course.
In Texas, there is a private launch padSpace Enterprise head and founder of Amazon multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos Blue Origin. Now this is a test cosmodrome, but perhaps in the future it will become a suitable place for tourist trips to space and back.
And at MacGregor, SpaceX built a launch pad for testing the Merlin 1D engine and the Falcon 9 and Grasshopper rockets.
Virginia has two starting points.sites - the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) and the NASA space center on Wallops Island. MARS sends ships into space thanks to the tax benefits “Zero Gravity - Zero Taxes”. Wallops launches NASA rockets. For example, on September 6, 2013, a probe flew from here to study the lunar atmosphere and the environment — for the first time outside Florida, where the main US space center is located.
Located on the east coast of Virginia,the object was built in 1945 for aerodynamic testing and as an orbital launch complex. Since then, more than 16,000 missiles have been launched from Wallops, including early prototypes of the Mercury project and LADEE.
Under the leadership of the Commercial OfficeVirginia’s space missions, MARS has two launch sites: Pad 0A, which has an FAA license to deliver payloads of up to 5 tons in low earth orbit, and Pad 0B, which can output up to 3.8 tons of payload, which is more suitable for smaller vehicles such as the Minotaur IV or Minuteman. In addition to the traditional solid fuel, it allows launching liquid fuel and hybrid rockets.
The first launch was made from the MARS cosmodromeOrbital Sciences Corporation’s autonomous cargo logistics Cygnus spacecraft aboard its launch vehicle Antares. Cygnus, Elon Musk’s Dragon Capsule competitor, successfully took off on September 18, 2013. Four days later, he reached the ISS, docked and delivered 980 kg of consumables.
The main US space center is located in the state of Florida.Hence the launch and coordination of the Apollo program in the 1960s and 1970s. and the Space Shuttle program in the 1980–2000s. "Space Coast" includes NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center, an Air Force station and the US space center at Cape Canaveral.
Upon completion of the shuttle program, the Air Force Station andThe Kennedy Space Center was open to commercial ventures. Together, these facilities have three active launch sites and two active runways for horizontal launches between them.
Start-up complexes 46 and 20 are primary.launch platforms of Cape Canaveral. The first of them is designed to accommodate Lockheed-Athena or Taurus middle-class missiles, as well as the Trident II and Minuteman ballistic missiles. The second complex was built to service the small suborbital launch systems LiteStar, Terrier, Orion and ASAS.
In 2010, the Federal Office of CivilThe United States Aviation Authority approved the creation of Cecil-Field Jacksonville on the site of the decommissioned naval aviation base. The launch site received a license in 2010, and the necessary means of supporting horizontally launched renewable vehicles are already operating there. The launch site has runways 3800, 2400, and 1200 m long, and additional taxiways and spaceport facilities are being developed. They should be completed by the end of the decade.
Today, space flights are in transition.stage. Research and military tests still dominate, although commercial satellite launches are beginning to occupy an increasing part of the modern rocket and space industry. Space tourism from companies such as Virgin Galactic and, perhaps, Blue Origin promises a new future, albeit at a price that is currently available to few.
New US spaceports and programs like Space X show how many more opportunities there are for innovation.
