From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 18, no. 1, March 2003.

By Mary Fonua.

A US rocket developer is pushing ahead with its plans to build a Space Port in Tonga, and is registering itself as a weapons manufacturer in order to export its rockets from the US.

Randa Milliron, CEO of InterOrbital Systems, said they had been going through the regulatory red tape with the US State Department, “first determining exactly how to categorize our rockets for maximum mobility from country to country. We see them as scientific instruments, the State Department sees them as weapons.” After the registration process, “then comes the export licensing process,” she said.

Interobital wants to launch a rocket into space this year from Tonga. The Space Port plans have been progressing since the Mojave based corporation had talks with the Tongan government early in 2002, and looked at a site on the south coast of ‘Eua.

X Prize

InterOrbital has recently joined in a race to win the X Prize, which was established in 1995 to encourage the development of reusable launch vehicles capable of carrying humans into space. The X Prize Foundation says it will award US $10 million to the first team to build and fly a three-person reusable spacecraft to an altitude of 100 kilometres twice within a two-week period. InterObital is one of the 24 international teams hoping to scoop the prize.

“Our plans include a space attempt from the Black Rock desert in northern Nevada. We’ll be launching a technology demonstrator rocket, the Neutrino, to 100 KM (62.5 miles). That’s the X-Prize altitude, an accepted definition of ‘Space’, and also a height that’s still never been reached by a private-sector rocket group. So it’ll be a real first and extremely significant,” Randa said. “This first space attempt will prove the rocket, which we hope to bring to Tonga later in the year for a flight to inaugurate the spaceport.”

The Tachyon (RSX-2) flights to 120 miles would follow the Neutrino flights. “Our X-Prize vehicle, the Solaris, is now in development, to be flown later in 2004. All of these flight tests lead up to the Neptune Orbital Spaceliner test flights from Tonga in 2005, with passenger service starting in 2006,” Randa said. ▲