LOHAN chews the fat with US TV station over Spaceport's FAA-ilure

New Mexico's KRQE squeezes statement from American launchpad bods

The Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) mission and its epic struggle to get clearance to launch at Spaceport America got a bit of airtime on Saturday night on Albuquerque TV station KRQE.

As you can see, reporter Emily Younger miraculously managed to get a statement out of Spaceport America:

Spaceport America welcomes innovators from all over the world within the emerging commercial space industry.

It is up to the prospective customer to complete the application process with each regulatory body before Spaceport America can move any further on a project, such as LOHAN's Vulture II.

Once they get regulatory approval our team at Spaceport America can go to work to help make their launch a success.

Mmmm, that's not quite the way we see it. For those of you not up to speed on the whole Spaceport/FAA palaver, here's our summary of the state of play earlier this month. We noted:

Spaceport America initially agreed to lend a hand with the FAA – for a price. It then apparently decided against that, and simply put us in touch with the local liaison at the FAA's Albuquerque tentacle.

He in turn informed us he'd passed the paperwork up the chain of command, and at this point began what we have dubbed "the long silence".

Unsurprisingly, KRQE failed to get a response from the FAA. What didn't make the final cut in Saturday's piece was me commenting on Ms Younger's heartwarming piece on the blind New Mexico mutt who finally found a new home. I expressed frank surprise that the FAA hadn't blocked the adoption. ®

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The Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator, sponsored by...

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...and with the invaluable support of...

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More from the lovely LOHAN:

• You can find full LOHAN coverage right here.
• If you're new to LOHAN, seek out our mission summary for enlightenment.
• There are photos our our magnificent Vulture 2 spaceplane here, and detailed structural plans here.
• For your further viewing pleasure, we have all our photographic material stored on Flickr.
• Our LOHAN and Paper Aircraft Released Into Space (PARIS) videos live on YouTube.
• We sometimes indulge in light consensual tweeting, as you can see here.