MSNBC’s Cosmic Log reports that Blue Origin plans to conduct flight tests in the next few days from its West Texas spaceport. A notice to airmen (NOTAM) issued by the FAA sets aside airspace over about 15 square kilometers centered on the launch site up to an altitude of about 3,000 meters, although the flight tests are not planned to go any higher than about 600 meters. The airspace restrictions will be in place from 9 am to 2 pm CST starting today and ending Monday. Other details about the flight tests are, not surprisingly, being kept under wraps by Blue Origin.
El Paso TV station KTSM paid a visit to the front gate of the spaceport and saw “plenty of people traveling in and out of the entrance”; whether that’s a sign of increased activity or not isn’t certain, although locals in the nearest town report increased business in hotels and restaurants. “They welcome the new customers, but don’t know exactly what they’re doing there,” KTSM reports.
The front page of today’s Wall Street Journal has an article about Blue Origin’s spaceport (subscription required), and how Jeff Bezos hasn’t been the most neighborly of people in the area, including putting a neighboring rancher (by the name of Phil Guitar) who has a property boundary dispute into a legal runaround. The article also has what appears to be an aerial photo of the spaceport, but the photo is small and no details about the structures in the image are given.