SPACE PORT ONE
Mojave gearing-up to welcome visitors to historic event of SpaceShipOne first space flight.
MOJAVE — With estimates of the number of people expected to visit
Mojave June 21st for an historic space flight increasing daily, Mojave
residents, businesses, and officials are ramping-up efforts to welcome,
feed, park, and care for them.
According to East Kern Airport District general manager Stuart Witt,
daily meetings are being held with airport staff, representatives of Scaled
Composites and Vulcan, Inc., and public safety officials.
Their goal is to ensure that thousands of visitors can be accommodated
while not interfering in what will be a flight test event, Witt said.
EKAD board members gave Witt authority to spend district money to prepare
for the planned flight of SpaceShipOne last week. That was done to avoid
the need to hold several special board meetings in the next couple of weeks.
“Our goal is to make sure we’re not stuck with a big bill,” Witt told
the board.
Numbers unknown
Perhaps the biggest challenge facing Witt and others planing for the
event is the total number of visitors they can expect.
Numbers ranging from a few thousand to over six-figures have been bandied
about. One indication of the level of interest is that reservations for
440 spaces for recreational vehicles sold out shortly after they were posted
on the internet.
Motel rooms in Mojave and throughout the Antelope Valley are sold out
for the event.
The California Highway Patrol will have a mobile command center and
extra officers in Mojave to handle traffic during the event.
Local groups make plans
As reported last week, local youth and charitable organizations will
benefit from the event by selling souvenirs and food.
That effort is being coordinated by the Mojave Space Boosters, headed
by Tonya Rutan, and the Mojave Chamber of Commerce. At a meeting last Friday
evening at Camelot Golf Course Rutan announced that flight sponsor Paul
Allen’s Vulcan, Inc., has given the chamber approval to sell items bearing
an approved logo.
Chamber treasurer Glenda Willie said $10,000 has been raised from loans
from local businessmen and women to provide “seed money” to purchase clothing
and other souvenir items that will be sold at the event and on-line.
Several local groups plan to sell food items at the event, California
Highway Patrol Explorers will help park cars at the airport, and local
Little League, Youth Football, and other organizations plan to participate
in various ways, including maintaining “Disneyland”-like trash collection
to ensure that nothing flies onto airport runways.
‘Buy-in’
Rutan, wife of Scaled founder Burt Rutan, emphasized that organizations
will benefit only if they participate.
“This is a ‘buy-in,’” Rutan said.
After the event is over, funds collected will be disbursed using a
United Way model in which groups make their case to a committee. No money
will be distributed until the seed money donors and other expenses are
paid
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