Rui Pedro Mendes Salgueiro wrote in message ...
Some months ago I wrote here about some talk by Portuguese ministers
about the possibility of "next-generation" reusable rockets being
launched from the Ilha de Santa Maria (37º 43' N, 28º 08' W), the
more eastward island in the Azores, and (their 1st stages ?) being
recovered in the portuguese mainland (the distance between Santa
Maria and the mainland coast is about 1,460 km).

Yesterday the same minister mentioned this again, this time talking
also about Beja (38.017 ºN, 7.867 ºW), an inland city (about 80 Km
east of the coast) in the south of Portugal, where there is a
militar airbase which (is / was ?) used by the German Air Force.
Probably the idea would be to land the rockets there.

If this happens, it will be after 2008. Anyone has seen some
announcement by ESA about a new generation of rockets for 2008
or so ?

BTW, recently I saw a photo reportage of the area in Kazakhstan
in which the spent stages from the rockets launched from Baikonur
fall. Since (some /all ?) of them have poisonous fuels / oxidizers
(RCS systems, if not the main engines ?) the cancer rates are high
in the region and the water, the soil, etc. are contaminated (one
photo was of 3 or 4 cows dead near a stream). OTOH, the aluminium
and titanium alloys of those stages are valuable and are recovered
by the local mafias.

The news article, from the Portuguese teletext, via babelfish
(I let the translation of the minister's name stay

Space BASE in Portugal

Portugal can come to receive a base of launching of rockets, with
the European Space Agency to admit that it might be in Beja and
Santa Maria, in the Azores. The minister of Science, Innovation
and Superior Education, Maria of the Favour Oak, explained that if
it happens it will only be after 2008, remaining itself until there
the current station of launching of rockets, in the French Guyana,
South America. The hypothesis of Portugal appears, said, for being
necessary to look for a complementary alternative to the Guyana
for the next generation to rockets launchers, which the ESA wants
to be recoverable.

It makes no sense to launch GEO satellites at those latitudes. Kourou
is at an excellent position and it will remain the launch site.
I have heard some proposals from the Germans to use Santa Maria as
a possible landing base, with launch from Kourou, for HOPPER, their
next-generation reusable space launcher proposal.

See:
http://www.space.eads.net/web1/press...tree_na v=273

It is still unknown which RLV proposal will be chosen by ESA, if one
is chosen at all, and even if HOPPER ends up being the next-gen RLV,
there are alternative landing sites.