DR looking into a spacesport solution for national security

[Dolores]

Burton Catledge, Launch on Demand, and Luis Soto, DNI / Diario Libre

The National Intelligence Agency (DNI) has signed an agreement with Launch on Demand, a Florida company that offers spacesport solutions. Burton Catledge signed for Launch on Demand and Luis Soto for the DNI. The company is contracted to first conduct a study on the feasibility of establishing a commercial spaceport near the equator.

The company promises that every available spaceport will soon serve as a central hub for both sub and outer orbit launches. By 2025, 20,000 new satellites are predicted to be placed in orbit, and over 200 private launches are expected to be conducted.

The DNI is the government entity that was created to centralize national intelligence actions and is in charge of collecting and analyzing data to prevent risks and threats to national...

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[chico bill]

Is this a joke ?
What will the DR do with satellites , or a launch site.
Seeing the DR is a remote location with limited infrastructure it sounds to me like this government has too much money to waste or is getting out will over its skis in pretending it is a world player.

Best spend that money on securing the border and improving water delivery service.

 

[windeguy]

Why would one argue against a potentially very profitable business being set up in the DR?
For those who don't like the concept of launching things into space, it seems to have a small chance of actually happening.

 

[CristoRey]

This Administration needs to learn how to crawl before they can walk.

 

[windeguy]

This Administration needs to learn how to crawl before they can walk.

It won't be the government setting up such a business. I think you missed the point of the potential Space Port.
Did the government build the Cruise Ship Ports? Or did companies do that? The DR, being near the equator,
has great benefits for launching into space. What would be wrong with companies building and using a Space Port in the DR?
To me, very little unless it was in my back yard. They tend to make some noise.

See, I am actually positive about the potential of a Space Port here in the DR.

 

[Taylor]

It won't be the government setting up such a business. I think you missed the point of the potential Space Port.
Did the government build the Cruise Ship Ports? Or did companies do that? The DR, being near the equator,
has great benefits for launching into space. What would be wrong with companies building and using a Space Port in the DR?
To me, very little unless it was in my back yard. They tend to make some noise.

See, I am actually positive about the potential of a Space Port here in the DR.

Agreed. Likely why they like Barahona, sparsely populated and they would likely build their own port and bring everything into a Zona Franca zone.

 

[chico bill]

Why would one argue against a potentially very profitable business being set up in the DR?
For those who don't like the concept of launching things into space, it seems to have a small chance of actually happening.

I'll bet $1,000 it never actually launches anything other than some graft

 

[chico bill]

It won't be the government setting up such a business. I think you missed the point of the potential Space Port.
Did the government build the Cruise Ship Ports? Or did companies do that? The DR, being near the equator,
has great benefits for launching into space. What would be wrong with companies building and using a Space Port in the DR?
To me, very little unless it was in my back yard. They tend to make some noise.

See, I am actually positive about the potential of a Space Port here in the DR.

Same thing was proposed for Puerto Rico year ago and fizzled, Space X even looked into putting a launce site there.
And PR has a huge advantage over DR because of its ties to NASA, and US territory status.
They even did launch of small sounding rockets from PR (Coqui 1 & 2)
And Space Innova has been studying a 'spaceport' there for some years

https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Spaceinnova%20LLC.pdf

And just last year they were seeking proposals for one in Cieba

https://www.sanjuandailystar.com/post/two-proposals-received-for-space-port-in-ceiba

So this sounds to me like some DR politicians have PR penis envy.

Florida is not that far from the equator such that it has a major 'equator' disadvantage.

France already launces from The Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, which in 2017 was overrun and occupied by local labor unions and indigenous persons protesting its presence, and was temporarily shut down, but was later cleared by France.
I don't think they have launched anything there for a couple years since the Ukraine War because Russia was using it to launch Soyuz rockets.

 

[windeguy]

You might have heard of Cape Canaveral? Yes, Florida already has a place to launch things. Why did they pull Kennedy's name from it?
My guess is that businesses want a cheaper place or they wouldn't be looking for one.

I do agree that the chance for winning such a business is small, but the location of the DR does give it some chance if US businesses are involved.
And it would be good business if the DR won it.

 

[Manuel01]

Why would one argue against a potentially very profitable business being set up in the DR?
For those who don't like the concept of launching things into space, it seems to have a small chance of actually happening.

Because this kind of activity is as bad for the environment as it gets. Like all this dirty rivers, no drinking water from the tap and the Goldmines arn't enough already (regardless that we all profit from their taxes). Maybe we also import all the electronic waste from europe, because this would be really good business.

 

[windeguy]

Everything in life is a trade off. The DR just recently built coal fired power plants. These are said to be bad for the environment.
But do you want electric power or not?

Do rocket launches release CO2 into the atmosphere which causes climate change, you bet your rocket engine they do.
But these launches will be done somewhere, and the DR might as well make some money off it.

 

[Ecoman1949]

Same thing was proposed for Puerto Rico year ago and fizzled, Space X even looked into putting a launce site there.
And PR has a huge advantage over DR because of its ties to NASA, and US territory status.
They even did launch of small sounding rockets from PR (Coqui 1 & 2)
And Space Innova has been studying a 'spaceport' there for some years

https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Spaceinnova%20LLC.pdf

And just last year they were seeking proposals for one in Cieba

https://www.sanjuandailystar.com/post/two-proposals-received-for-space-port-in-ceiba

So this sounds to me like some DR politicians have PR penis envy.

Florida is not that far from the equator such that it has a major 'equator' disadvantage.

France already launces from The Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, which in 2017 was overrun and occupied by local labor unions and indigenous persons protesting its presence, and was temporarily shut down, but was later cleared by France.
I don't think they have launched anything there for a couple years since the Ukraine War because Russia was using it to launch Soyuz rockets.

The European Space Agency launch site in French Guiana has been used to launch many satellites including the James Webb space telescope. Any site established in the DR would have to compete with it.

As you noted, security at the ESA launch site was a problem. Not anymore. The French Foreign Legion established an outpost there and provide security for the site.

 

[bachata]

Is this a joke ?
What will the DR do with satellites , or a launch site.
Seeing the DR is a remote location with limited infrastructure it sounds to me like this government has too much money to waste or is getting out will over its skis in pretending it is a world player.

Best spend that money on securing the border and improving water delivery service.

Weather conditions and lower rate work force.
Zona Franca Espacial!

JJ

 

[Lucifer]

I can hear Dominican YouTubers and TV personalities bragging that the D.R. is now competing with NASA.

Yes, with NASA because... because it's the only entity they think they know.

Apuesto peso a "moriqueta" that they've never read anything about ROSCOSMOS, ISRO, ESA, CNSA, ASA or JAXA.

I can hear the hippocampus man (José Laluz, also known as José Apagón and Caballito de Mar) make grandiose pronouncements, as well as overtures to Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos:

"Folks, here in the D.R., we have the know-how and the talent to conquer space. Our INTEC students won the NASA competition three years in a row."

 

[drstock]

I can see it now: "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3...... Diablo! Se fue la luz!"

 

[chico bill]

You might have heard of Cape Canaveral? Yes, Florida already has a place to launch things. Why did they pull Kennedy's name from it?
My guess is that businesses want a cheaper place or they wouldn't be looking for one.

I do agree that the chance for winning such a business is small, but the location of the DR does give it some chance if US businesses are involved.
And it would be good business if the DR won it.

The Canaveral name goes back to the 1500s and is the name of the spit of land first 'discovered' by Spanish explorers but could have been the French.
The buildings and pads are still called Kennedy Space Center.
It's the land that is Cape Canaveral, which never changed.

 

[chico bill]

Because this kind of activity is as bad for the environment as it gets. Like all this dirty rivers, no drinking water from the tap and the Goldmines arn't enough already (regardless that we all profit from their taxes). Maybe we also import all the electronic waste from europe, because this would be really good business.

You know only 8% of recyclable plastic gets recycled, glass and metal is slightly higher but most go into landfills so import of waste to be buried in DR wouldn't surprise me.
Heck just the cardboard boxes from China probably could fill Estadio Cibao weekly.

 

[Lucifer]

Dominicans believe that Cape Canaveral is named for the sugar cane fields located all over the eastern portion of the island.
And some might attribute that to the power of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo and Porfirio Rubirosa.

 

[cavok]

It might happen right after the DR builds that nuclear plant they're talking about.

 

[JD Jones]

Dominicans believe that Cape Canaveral is named for the sugar cane fields located all over the eastern portion of the island.
And some might attribute that to the power of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo and Porfirio Rubirosa.

That's the nickname they'll give to the first rocket, "El Rubirosa"

Those who know, know.