By Juan MontoyaFirst came the "discovery" of pulsars hundreds of light years away in space by the local university.
Now, coming to a gullible audience near you: a commercial spaceport.
According to the Sunshine Boys over at the Brownsville Economic Development Corporation, the Tip-o-Tex may soon be known for its commercial space launch port to be located in some unspecified spot some five miles south of South Padre Island and about three miles north of the Mexican border.
Now, by our reckoning, that would put the proposed space port on Boca Chica Beach, on Brownsville Navigation District property, or on land now owned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife on protected acreage toward the Gulf of Mexico. It could also be on some piece of private property somewhere out on the tidal flats.
Promoters say that all that's needed is an environmental clearance to put this area in the running against another two sites – one in Florida and another in Puerto Rico – for the installation of Space Exploration Technologies,’ or SpaceX’s, launch site for Falcon 9 and other commercial space vehicles.
Before you start making your down payments on your space suit, let's think this one out.
That BEDC is trying to "lure" the company down here means that it will "incentivize" the firm with some type of financial inducements to bring its high-tech operations to our area.
But, let's also remember that it's going to be hard to get those propulsion engineers and payload specialist standing in line at the Cameron Workforce Center to apply.
We know, for example, that the state ranks last in the percent of the adult population age 25 or over that graduated from high school. It is also 37th in the percent of population enrolled in degree-granting institutions, 35th in academic research and development, and 41st in science and engineering degrees awarded.
However, the silver lining is that thanks to the forward sightedness and vision of the BEDC and the TSC-UTB leadership, we here in South Texas are at the cutting edge of research. UTB, for example, can lay partial claim to the discovery of a previously undetected pulsar spinning hundreds of light years away above the Milky Way's galactic plane faster than the speed of light.
This will allow researchers to verify our basic understanding of physics and give us a new tool to study the universe, not to mention creating "hundreds of jobs" in the unspecified future.
And, according to Gilbert Salinas, executive vice president of the BEDC, should the space port company decide to build such a launch site in Brownsville, it could cut the area’s unemployment rate by at least 1 percent.
Now, we don't know where Salinas pulled this number from, but we really doubt that of, say, 15,000 people unemployed locally, 150 of them would have the credentials to be launch-pad specialists, aerospace engineers, etc. A television station interviewed a BEDC spokesperson who mentioned that as many as "600" jobs could be created.
And Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos mentioned the "educational" and tourism potential of the project. How public education could benefit from a private aerospace enterprise on private land was not explained.
Was the 1 percent a pie-in-the-sky wish or one that was thrown out there to impress the rubes?
As the article in the local daily stated, this is not South Texas' first rodeo with this kind of proposal.
Several years ago, Willacy County was eyed for a "space port" project, and a 22-pound test rocket was launched in 2002 near Port Mansfield. The newspaper stated that the program fizzled after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorists attacks when the FAA banned future launches.
Now, this space port proposal is closer to the border where crazies like the "Zetas," "the Gulf Cartel and others are active on both sides of the border.
Good thing the shovel-in-the-ground stage is far out in the future so that we can have a good chance to really scrutinize it before the BEDC, predictably, starts to throw our sales-tax money at outsiders who may be here today and fly-by-night tomorrow.
As the article in the local daily stated, this is not South Texas' first rodeo with this kind of proposal.
Several years ago, Willacy County was eyed for a "space port" project, and a 22-pound test rocket was launched in 2002 near Port Mansfield. The newspaper stated that the program fizzled after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorists attacks when the FAA banned future launches.
Now, this space port proposal is closer to the border where crazies like the "Zetas," "the Gulf Cartel and others are active on both sides of the border.
Good thing the shovel-in-the-ground stage is far out in the future so that we can have a good chance to really scrutinize it before the BEDC, predictably, starts to throw our sales-tax money at outsiders who may be here today and fly-by-night tomorrow.
9 comments:
Years ago the idea of a Mercedes automobile site at the Port was addressed....and that died. The idea of a wind turbine farm at the Port was negotiated and killed by PUB who didn't want to have to buy wind energy. Titan tire came and went. Now a space center....can we expect our local workforce to actually be up to that..or will labor with the skills to support this project have to be imported. All these projects fail because we don't have the skilled labor to make them work here....thanks to BISD and UTB. The commercial space port is a dream....
Will the space port need janitors and security guards? Who will manage the landscaping, trim, cut and blow the cuttings?
This will be an economic boon for Brownsville!!!!!
Progress is important, but we can't even patch a pothole down here. One step at a time.
Dear BadLuck Schleprock,
Were you always this cheery? I can't understand how someone can be so depressed and so depressing. Does anything positive in Brownsville ever clear your dire direction? If you are so unhappy get out!
Great! more false hope for our future generation! i think this is a job for "Grandpa"... up up and away!!
Talk about being a sour patch, Montoya! Do you like ANY project that tries to come to the city?? You belittle your own people. Have you heard of the word progress? Yes, kids may not be at the skill level needed now but thats why BISD, TSC & UTB need to get on board to prepare the youth!
Why is it, that Browntown blogesters feel the need to turn everything progressive into politcs, criticism and carping? This place us filled with economic, organizational, and political retards. No wonder, this place is sucking hind tit.
El Pinche Gringo
All economic projects are a gamble, there is NO SURE thing, the EDC board needs to really study this potential project and then make its decision if it should invest or not. And YES by the Way, Edcuation is very important and in many cases one of the Key factor many companies llllok at when they want to move into a a new city. former edc director.
this is different from past projects. for one, spacex is a legitimate company. they are currently negotiating with nasa to deliver supplies to the space station, now that the shuttles are out of service (according to ABC national news). based on that info, i would say spacex is up and coming..unlike titan, who was on the decline. this is not the same as the fly by night companies we usually hear about.. this is not flyfrontera, or taylorcraft, or panamerican.
the naysayers are right in that there is not a sufficient local labor pool. so what if they import 500 engineers? they will buy or build houses..they will shop at our stores, they will bring a ton of disposable income that will translate into other jobs.
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