As work gathers pace in the bid to create a spaceport in the area, the Helensburgh Aeronautics and Space Administration has added Cardross’ village hall to its shortlist of potential sites for
Since their first test launch in early November, HASA officials have been working feverishly to select a suitable location to act as a launch communications hub. Just as the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas has been synonymous with historic moments in space travel, such as the Apollo Programme, HASA hope that one day their own mission control centre (MCC) will be held in the same regard.
“We’ve been holding trials of our communications system since the summer and although we still intend to use Kidston Park as launch control, there is a precedent for basing mission control further away just in case anything goes wrong.” A HASA official told us. “Normally, mission control takes over from launch control shortly after the launch vehicle has cleared the tower. In our case, we’ll defer to MCC once the launch vehicle is higher than The Tower cinema – they should have a visual reference by that point.”
Once a base of operations is selected, numerous test launches are scheduled to take place in the
