Front Range is located near Watkins, east of Denver. Its proposed status as "Spaceport Colorado" would allow for creation of a facility offering tourism, travel and cargo transport to space and from point to point on Earth.
Spaceports — of which eight are active in the United States — are viewed as important economic-development tools.
"These are the opportunities, like cellphones in the early 1990s, that seem farfetched but may not be all that far away. The potential here is huge," Hickenlooper said to about 300 aerospace industry members gathered at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.
Just a year or two ago, Colorado was considered too populated to allow the construction and operation of a spaceport.
Since then, the development of dual-propulsion spacecraft that can take off from a conventional runway has altered those perceptions. The emerging technology is expected to make space travel easier because it doesn't have the risks of vertical launches.
"Being able to launch horizontally is a game-changer," said Barry Gore, chief executive of Adams County Economic Development.
The concept sounds like something out of Buck Rogers — space planes taxi and take off powered by jet engines, switch to rocket engines when they hit altitude and switch back to jet engines for landing.
"In an hour and a half, you can be in Singapore," said Tom Clark, executive president of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp.
--http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_19493801
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