Plans for the Houston Spaceport are moving along: Houston City Council members approved the $6.9M purchase of an aerospace engineering building and land adjacent to Ellington Airport. The 53k SF building will house both manufacturing and office space. Prospective tenants are already reaching out, the airport system received letters of intent to lease from Intuitive Machines and Catapult Satellite Applications. General Manager at Ellington Airport Arturo Machuca says this is the first facility dedicated solely to the Houston Spaceport project.

The spaceport at Ellington Airport will become a focal point for aerospace operations, including launching micro satellites, astronaut training, zero gravity experimentation and spacecraft manufacturing, among other things. The Ellington site includes 600 acres available for lease and three runways with 24-hour traffic control. HAS will establish infrastructure required to accommodate RLVs, which execute horizontal launches, rather than vertical, similar to a commercial aircraft. But, Houstonians won’t be spending spring break in space anytime soon due to the challenges facing commercial space operators.