Mojave Spaceport
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The Mojave Spaceport, also known as the Mojave Airport and Civilian Flight Test Center, is the first facility to be licensed in the United States for horizontal launches of reusable spacecraft. Certified as a spaceport by the Federal Aviation Administration on June 17, 2004, it is also the first inland spaceport in the United States.
The Mojave airport is also known as a storage location for commercial airliners. Numerous large Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, Lockheed, and Airbus aircraft owned by major airlines are stored at Mojave. Some aircraft reach the end of their useful lifetime and are scrapped at Mojave, while others are refurbished and returned to active service. Not all the aircraft are in need of repair and some are only being stored for a short time.
Mojave Spaceport has been a test site for several teams in the Ansari X Prize. Most notably, it is the test launch site for SpaceShipOne, developed by Scaled Composites, which conducted the first privately-funded human spaceflight on June 21 2004. Other groups based at the Mojave Spaceport include XCOR Aerospace, Orbital Sciences Corporation and Interorbital Systems.
The airport can be seen in many films and commercials. Its isolation, wide-open spaces and proximity to Los Angeles makes it an attractive filming location. The airport has facilities dedicated for filming, a large supply of aircraft to use as props and two large film pads that can be flooded for water scenes. Action movies and car commercials make up the bulk of the filming at the airport.
The facility is located in Mojave, California (Template:Coor dm), at an elevation of 2791 feet. Its address is 1434 Flight Line Mojave, CA 93501.
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External links
- Mojave Airport Civilian Flight Test Center (http://www.mojaveairport.com/)
- Airliners.net Mojave airport photos (http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.search?placesearch=Mojave%20%28MHV%29&distinct_entry=true)
- Alan's Mojave Airport photo weblog (http://www.mojavebooks.com/mhv/index.html)
- http://www.astronautix.com/sites/mojave.htmde:Mojave Airport