Asri-unix.994 net.space utcsrgv!utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ARPAVAX:C70:sri-unix!TAW@SU-AI Fri Mar 12 11:06:11 1982 Private Enterprise n008 0632 12 Mar 82 BC-SATELLITES(COX) SATELLITES COULD BRING JOBS TO HAWAII By SCOTT C.S. STONE c. 1982 Cox News Service SOUTH POINT, Hawaii - On this southernmost tip of the United States, where the Polynesian discoverers of Hawaii probably first stepped ashore, the first U.S. commercial satellites are to be launched by private enterprise. Known to local residents as Ka Lae, South Point formerly was the site of a NASA tracking station. Today it is grazing land for cattle, a favorite launching site for fishing boats, and likely a place of great historic value to Hawaii. The mayor of the island of Hawaii, Herbert Matayoshi, has vowed to protect whatever historic sites are yet to be found, but at the same time welcomes the satellite enterprise which, he believes, will be an asset on an island suffering from high unemployment and slumping sugar and tourism industries. The Houston firm of Space Services, Inc., of America has been negotiating with the state's Department of Planning and Economic Development as well as the mayor of Hawaii Island and other officials. If negotiations succeed, the firm could be launching anywhere from 2 to 12 satellites a year by 1985. The satellites would provide customers with weather information and communications channels. South Point was selected because it is the U.S. site closest to the equator and most feasible for satellites with equator orbits. Matayoshi told Cox News Service that ''We will make sure historic sites are protected, and that our environment is not disturbed. We are very impressed with the concern shown so far by the company (SSI) for these issues. We think it's going to work out all right.'' The state's planning director, Hideto Kono, said the satellite-launching plan was ''not a wild dream, but a very real possibility,'' and said the state welcomed the new industry and would give it all possible support. Hawaii Island is four times the size of the other Hawaiian islands but with far less population. The island's tourism industry has been in a slump for the past two years, and its construction industry in decline. Additionally, a sugar plantation has closed and unemployment has reached 9 per cent, the highest in Hawaii. An asset is its land area, and the new satellite industry could require some 200 acres simply for a launching site, plus adjacent land for support facilities. South Point is an isolated, lava-strewn stretch of coastline where, historians believe, Polynesians from the Marquesas Islands may have first landed in Hawaii more than a thousand years ago. The satellite firm, SSI, reportedly is working on a solid-fuel rocket which might be test-launched in Texas this summer, but the first continuing launch program is scheduled for Hawaii and preliminary studies indicate the starting date would be within the next three years. Distributed by The N.Y. Times News Service nyt-03-12-82 0932est *************** ----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/ This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided: 1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles. 2. The following notice remains appended to each copy: The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.