Michigan Low Earth Orbit Launch Facility

[rdale]

Uh oh - it appears some important details were left out of previous communications from the Michigan space group…

https://www.newyorker.com/news/us-journal/the-plan-to-make-michigan-the-next-space-state?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_042422

 “the annual revenue generated from a launch cadence of one rocket launch per week in Michigan would have the same revenue impact in the State equal to the annual revenue of two additional fast-food chain restaurants.”

[rdale]

Where’s my ‘shocked’ emoji?

https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/michigan-spent-25m-be-rocket-hub-critics-say-its-produced-only-hype

[arachnitect]

Where’s my ‘shocked’ emoji?

https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/michigan-spent-25m-be-rocket-hub-critics-say-its-produced-only-hype

FYI for those who don't click through, the amount spent is $2.5 Million, not $25M.

[Robotbeat]

$2.5m isn’t very much.

The annual revenue mentioned… sounds like just launch license fees? The obvious benefit from such a thing is not just generating license fees but an aerospace hub with high paying jobs.

Maybe Michigan doesn’t need that. At least right now, employment rate is fairly high, and it’s not obvious they need more jobs. Spending to increase employment only helps if you need more employment. But it is clearly a bigger impact than two McDonalds’. The tourism impact alone would be a lot more.

You don’t just automatically get big multiplier effects from just any kind of spending unless you’re in a demand-deficit recession of some sort (regional or national). If you’re meeting an important need, you can do better than mere Keynesian multipliers, though. But there’s not really a sign that there aren’t enough launch sites, so you’d have to make a stronger case that the Michigan site has a unique advantage.

Freshwater is FAR less corrosive than saltwater, so it’d make some kinds of rocket reuse a lot easier. That is one argument, but without more information, it’s not enough.

If point to point cargo (or even passenger) travel becomes a thing, then the argument for a regional spaceport becomes stronger (for the same reason cities need airports—there’s a very large logistical argument—cities need to be well-connected to thrive), but that’d still be very much cart-before-the-horse right now. But maybe not for too much longer… The DoD has given out rocket cargo development contracts to multiple companies, now (SpaceX and RocketLab, and perhaps a few more?).

[Robotbeat]

Pretty freaking hilarious this person doesn’t think there are heavy industrial sites on Lake Superior, though, which is used for transport of iron ore from one of the largest source of iron ore in the world…

“It’s really quite remarkable that anyone would consider putting a heavy industrial facility [like a launch pad] on the coastline of the largest body of freshwater in the world,” said Dennis Ferraro, who lives about 3 miles from the selected site and leads the opposition group Citizens for a Safe & Clean Lake Superior.

As someone who has been to Lake Superior many times, it has some of the largest industrial sites on it that I’ve ever seen in my life, and the same is true for the other Great Lakes, which formed the logistical network to connect the whole upper Midwest and Northeast industrial heartland of America, making America the manufacturing hub of the world, back when America actually was on the forefront of manufactured stuff instead of a post-industrializing nation exporting our industrial capacity to China…

[rdale]

The township where the launch site was going to be located said no...

And there are legal questions behind how the grant was obtained and what the money was used for...

https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/dana-nessels-office-probing-2m-rocket-plan-failed-launch