State Selects Dry Lake as Space Launch Site

A dry lake bed in San Bernardino County has been chosen over a Lancaster site as the best place to launch the space shuttle’s heir apparent, the Lockheed Martin VentureStar, state commerce officials said Friday.

The State Trade and Commerce Agency considered three other sites--in Lancaster, Merced and Vandenberg Air Force Base--but chose Harper Dry Lake bed, six miles north of Barstow, as ideal because of its remote location and proximity to Palmdale.

“The Harper Dry Lake site is close to Air Force Plant 42, the Palmdale development and production facility for the VentureStar prototype,” said spokesman Norman Williams. “It also is 3,000 feet above sea level, which allows larger payload to be delivered into space.”

The winning proposal, submitted by San Bernardino County, calls for construction of a remote launch complex, with plans to tow the wedge-shaped spacecraft 60 miles from its Palmdale assembly area to the high-desert launch grounds.

California is competing against 14 other states for the $5-billion VentureStar program, which is expected to create as many as 3,000 jobs.

NASA and Lockheed Martin officials have not said whether there will be one or two national launch sites.

The National Aeronautics Space Administration is counting on VentureStar to bring the cost of space flight down from $10,000 per pound to $1,000 per pound and to replace the fleet of aging shuttles after 2012.

Testing of one of the VentureStar prototypes, the X-33 rocket plane, has been beset by difficulties. The most recent problems occurred last November with the craft’s hydrogen fuel tanks.

The X-33’s first test flight had been scheduled for July, but sources say it could now be delayed six months or more.