RIDING HIGH:
The National Science and Technology Council’s planned space mission launch site could one day be expanded into a spaceport, a source said

  • By Tsai Yun-jung and Esme Yeh / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Houston First Corp, which manages city-owned properties for Houston, Texas, yesterday said it had contacted the government over the feasibility of introducing a spaceport to Taiwan.

The US has been developing spaceport technology and seeking opportunities to commercialize it and build an industry.

The Houston Spaceport at Ellington Airport is a federally licensed commercial facility for launching and landing suborbital vehicles. It is also a hub for commercial aerospace and aviation companies, as well as a science park for academic, government and private research and development, with tenants such as NASA and Axiom Space.

Photo courtesy of Houston Airport System

Houston First said it contacted Taiwan because it is indispensable to research and development for US companies.

Suborbital commercial spaceflight can reduce the 13-to-16-hour flight from Houston to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to two-and-a-half hours, it said, adding that it had exchanged ideas about spaceport applications with government agencies in charge of technology and the American Institute in Taiwan.

The government is still reviewing the information and no plans for a spaceport have been initiated, it said.

Suborbital flight from a spaceport involves an aircraft taking off from a runway carrying a spacecraft, which would detach to fly to an altitude that is considered space, a Houston City Government official said.

The spacecraft would then adjust toward its destination before re-entering the atmosphere in freefall and flying to land at the destination airport, they said.

A spaceport requires appropriate airport facilities, an air traffic control system, aircraft manufacturing capabilities and logistical support, they said.

That includes sufficient weight-bearing capacity of airport runways and space-based communications, the official said.

Based on current technology, spacecraft are launched to conduct experiments and would first be used to transport goods, as the problem of significant drag force on people riding in such a craft must be resolved to carry passengers, they said.

A source with knowledge of the matter said that other US authorities have informally explored the idea with the Taiwan Space Agency at international events.

Given the launch and landing speeds, cargo delivery is more feasible than transporting passengers without training, they said.

Although the cost of suborbital flight would initially be high, it could be lowered if a common and reusable vehicle is developed, the source said.

Earlier this year, the National Science and Technology Council announced it had chosen Jiupeng Village (九棚) in Pingtung County’s Manjhou Township (滿州) as Taiwan’s national space mission launch site.

Although the site’s current operations focus on launching spacecraft, it has the potential to be expanded into a spaceport, the source said.