Blastoff for Blue Origin?

Reader Hannes Hacker emails me with interesting news concerning the town in West Texas whose name lends itself to this blog:

Blue Origin, the suborbital space venture created by Amazon.com billionaire Jeff Bezos, is gearing up for a round of rocket testing at its private spaceport in West Texas over the next few days. The first tests would involve sending up a prototype rocket vehicle to about 2,000 feet (610 meters) for no more than a minute - but between now and 2010, Blue Origin plans to shoot its rocket ships up 62 miles or more, to the edge of outer space.

Notice of the upcoming tests came in the form of a notice to airmen, or NOTAM, issued by the Federal Aviation Administration. The notice sets aside airspace in a 5.75-statute-mile radius around Bezos' launch site, near Van Horn, up to an altitude of 10,000 feet (just to be safe). The area will be off-limits to pilots between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. CT, starting Friday and ending Monday.

...

... Blue Origin spokesman Bruce Hicks is keeping mostly mum, as is his habit. When I contacted him for comment, he said the schedule called for test launches to begin in November. "It's November," he observed.

Blue Origin activity might account for a few recent hits from Google searches for "Van Horn, Texas". Not droves, yet, but one can always hope!

-- CAV