Tuesday, April 3, 2007, 04:16 PM
The Brazoria County Commissioner's office recently voted to end the Gulf Coast Regional Spaceport Development Corporation. This decision will undoubtedly affect the Amateur Spaceflight Association, but the impact is unclear at this point.
ASA's test stand and the road+launch pad built by the county are located on property owned by DOW Chemical - it was leased to the GCRS. Any test firing or rocket launching activities occurring at this site will now be coordinated directly with DOW, and we are working through that process.
ASA has received permission to use the facility for a test firing, but under the insurance guidelines provided by DOW. We are very appreciative for this agreement, and we are working through the appropriate insurance channels. More information will be posted here or on the propulsion engineering team blog as it becomes available.
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Saturday, February 10, 2007, 12:12 PM
ASA visited the test site today to check out the condition of the test stand and the new road built by the county. When we built our test stand last May, we were given a location in the middle of a field and we started digging. Recently, the county built a fenced-in road, parking lot, and launch pad on this property for purposes of amateur rocketry activities. Our test stand is approximately 200 feet off of this road.
Here is a picture of the new parking lot and road:
The launch pad:
We also walked out to the test stand just to make sure it was still intact. As you can see in the following picture, we still need to add a few feet to our blast wall, but otherwise the test stand is in good condition (albeit a little dirty). The steel structure of the test stand is complete, but is being kept offsite.
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Wednesday, October 4, 2006, 11:38 PM
Although the other two ASE student teams have started up for the fall, the Civil Engineering team is waiting for the next phase of GCRS site development to wrap up. The County has been given the green light to proceed with building the road on the GCRS test site, so once the test site dries out from the recent rain, the road should be completed soon.
When we have full access to the site, the Civil Engineering team will finish the construction of the blast wall, a fence, and a few other items needed for the test stand.
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