2 ms·

I assume handling a rocket suitable for an air-launch needs some additional safety considerations while handled on the ground.

• dsfyu404ed 4y ago
  You're trucking in an airframe, fuel, oxygen and assembling the product. All of these things routinely get trucked around and there's already an established system of rules for doing so. Sure, assembling and fueling the vehicle is a little different but it's not much different than the fuel truck and the oxygen truck showing up to a chemical plant on the same morning. Airports already have precedent and procedure for handling exotic fuels. The cargo here is no more interesting or deserving of special care (and in some cases it's less) than the stuff the oil and gas industry flies around the north sea. I'm sure "but safety" is how the bureaucrats justify the extra make-work but that's a pretty worthless justification in a world where you don't need a special site permit to load a case of explosives or hazmat onto a chopper so long as you follow the preexisting handling requirements for whatever it is you're handling. So yeah, I see this as pointless red tape and it's doubly a nuisance seeing as commercial space flight is a fledging industry that probably should be nurtured by government rather than fought. If they were actually shooting off rockets I'd feel differently but that's not the case.
  • jjk166 4y ago
    You know you have to fill out quite a bit of paperwork to demonstrate you are capable of safely handling chemicals when building and operating a chemical plant too. An airport needs a special license to be a spaceport not because it is fundamentally harder, just because it requires a different skillset.