Ashburn Space Development Bills Advance

SACRAMENTO - Senator Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield) today announced that two of his bills related to commercial space development in California passed their first committee hurdles this week.

Senate Bill 1671 which provides an $11 million loan from the General Fund to the East Kern Airport District to construct the Mojave Spaceport Terminal passed the Senate Transportation Committee by a vote of 8-1. Testifying before the Committee were Stu Witt, General Manager of the Mojave Airport along with aviation and aerospace pioneer Dick Rutan.

"Once again California is on the brink of a whole new technological growth sector of our economy - privately operated space travel. This exciting new industry will create jobs and wonders to rival the economic booms of the past century," said Senator Ashburn. "As other states compete for the commercial spaceport industry that began in Mojave, it is only right that California steps up to the plate with this modest loan to help keep this 21st century industry here where it began."

Presently the Mojave Spaceport/Airport is the only licensed Inland Spaceport in the nation. In 2004, a small aerospace company, Scaled Composites, operating out of the Mojave Airport successfully launched and safely returned to Earth, the first privately funded spacecraft. Based on two of the launches, the company was awarded the $10 million X-Prize.

This sparked the interest of Virgin Galactic Airline owner Richard Branson who is now partnering with Scaled Composites to operate the world's first commercial space flight Company. Twelve private firms are home-based in Mojave performing sub-orbital and orbital projects supporting various elements to this new industry. In addition to Branson's Virgin Galactic those include; Scaled Composites, The SpaceShipCompany, XCor Aerospace, Spath Engineering, Orbital Sciences, Space Flight Corp., Protoflight Corp., AirLaunch Corp., Lunar Technologies, LLC., General Kinetics LLC., XPrize Corp.

SB 1671 appropriates $11 million as a loan to the East Kern Airport District for the construction of the Mojave Spaceport Terminal. The terminal project consists of two buildings, a hanger for advanced research and development of space flight technologies, and a Commercial Passenger Terminal & Educational Facility.

Also this week, the Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee passed Senator Ashburn's Senate Bill 1698. SB 1698 provides $2 million to fund the California Space Enterprise Competitive Grant Program. The California Space Enterprise Competitive Grant program was established in 1997 to develop space enterprise in California. "Space enterprises" include the commercial use of space, space vehicle launches, space launch infrastructure, manufacturing, applied research, technology development, economic diversification, and business development. The Space Grant program has not received funding since 2000.

SB 1698 additionally extends by two more years the sunset date of the Office of Military and Aerospace Support which is scheduled to lapse at the end of this year. The Office of Military and Aerospace Support is charged with the development and implementation of a strategic plan to keep military bases in the state. The office is also responsible for assisting communities with the conversion of military bases closed or realigned during the Federal Base Realignment and Closing (BRAC) process.

Senator Ashburn represents the 18th Senate District including Tulare, Kern, Inyo, and San Bernardino Counties.

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