DALLAS - An Oklahoma legislator hopes the Force will be with him this week when he fine-tunes language in a bill that will allow the state to begin working on a bond-funded spaceport.
Rep. Jack Bonny, D-Burns Flat, has introduced House bill 1938, which would create the Oklahoma Spaceport Development Act of 2000. The bill is expected to define the use of tax-exempt bonds for a spaceport facility, as well as who might run such a facility. A spokesperson for Bonny said the language of the bill should be ironed out Thursday.
The bill will work in tandem with Senate bill 720, passed in 1999, which created the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority. That bill authorized the conversion of a closed Air Force base into a spaceport and created the authority to govern the project as well as issue bonds.
While Oklahoma does not have a final construction cost estimate for its spaceport, officials point to five spaceport facilities built in Florida and California that cost those states between $7 million and $25 million.
The port would be used to launch rockets with commercial satellites, and perhaps vehicles similar to the VentureStar space plane, a reusable launch vehicle currently being developed by Lockheed Martin. Other companies are working on similar vehicles, and still more are concentrating on the design of low-cost single-launch vehicles.
Legislation is pending in both the houses of the U.S. Congress that would allow states to issue tax-exempt bonds to build spaceports in the same way states issue bonds for waterways ports and airports.
Harold Bucholtz, a partner with the Washington, D.C., law firm of Holland & Knight, is working with federal lawmakers to get that bill passed.
"We have quite a bit of support in the Senate," he said. "The House is a little weaker, but we are optimistic that we'll get this bill passed in the upcoming legislative session."
If the national legislation clears, Oklahoma legislators hope that the early implementation of their spaceport program will give them the jump on other states that don't currently have such laws on the books.
Bucholtz said only four states currently operate spaceports, but many others are contemplating them.
