Rocket launch site talks to intensify
By Gitanjali Singh
Andrew Beal, head of Beal Aerospace Inc of Texas, is expected here this evening with a team to further discuss the possibility of setting up a satellite launch site in the interior. "We are definitely still in the game," Prime Minister Sam Hinds said on Saturday, disclosing that a government team has already made two visits to the area earmarked for the company. An aerial reconnaissance was done two weeks ago and a boat trip was made last Friday by government officials. Beal Aerospace returned to Guyana late last month to pursue its interest in setting up a satellite launch site here. The company has already secured the uninhabited 90-acre Sombrero Island off the British-dependent territory, Anguilla, for such a launch site but has not ruled out Guyana as an option. The company is to make a presentation to Cabinet on the proposed investment and will visit the earmarked site--the right northern bank of the Waini River--before leaving. The area is extremely swampy but provides clear launch corridors to the north and east and the firm needs 20,000 acres of land for actual operations. Hinds does not believe that the condition of the area will deter the investors, given that Cape Canaveral, a satellite launch site in Florida, was set up on areas which were once swampy. The Beal team is expected to include an expert on land recovery who would estimate how much the initial investment cost will be for a launch site in Guyana. Hinds believes that to develop a base could easily cost in the area of US$5 million. The government, Hinds said, is doing all it can to facilitate Beal Aerospace as it is determined to win this multi-million dollar investment. "We are still looking good [as an investment site]," Hinds said on Saturday. It was in August 1997, that Beal Aerospace first expressed interest in Guyana but it later opted for Sombrero Island to pursue that investment expeditiously. However, the company has been waiting for some time now on the British government to approve issues relating to the environment and with a burning need to push its investment forward has returned to Guyana to explore the possibility of investing here instead. The investment will include the construction of a private airstrip and the firm is assuring that all launches will have US Federal Aviation Administration approval. The firm is asking for pre-approved visas and work permits for Beal officials, creation of a free-trade zone and water access for shipments. It says that its presence here will facilitate international business travel with extensive international news media attention. Hinds, in an earlier interview, had said that Beal Aerospace was looking at Guyana as a fall-back for the investment but the government was going to do all it could to make Guyana the number one choice. Guyana is closer to the equator than Sombrero Island and this will allow for a big cut in costs were the company to launch its satellite operation here. Beal Aerospace is hoping to make its operation the number one commercial rocket launch site and Hinds is very upbeat about the possibilities of this investment. If Guyana secures this investment, the immediate benefits will be 500 construction jobs in two years and then a permanent employment force of about 200. Apart from that, the investment will put Guyana in the frontline of modern technology. Beal Aerospace, which was incorporated in 1997, was hoping to have its first two test launches in late 2000 and to reach full commercialization in 2001.
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