Speaker: Robert Collins, Sr. Asst. City Attorney, City of Houston Legal Department. 
Topic: "Houston Spaceport" 

The Houston Airport System has three facilities: George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), William P. Hobby Airport (HOU), and Ellington Airport (EFD).  They bring air service to Houston's diverse and vibrant population.  The three-airport system served more than 55 million passengers in 2015, including nearly 12 million international travelers.

Together our airports form one of North America's largest public airport systems and position Houston as the international passenger and cargo gateway to the south central United States and a primary gateway to Latin America.

While the airports represent a significant contribution to Houston and the surrounding communities' economies, they do not burden the local tax base to pay for operations, maintenance or capital improvements. Rather the system accomplishes financial self-sufficiency by deriving income from fees, rentals, and other charges. Surpluses generated are reinvested into capital development and bond retirement. At the same time according to the most recent economic impact study, these airports collectively contribute more than $27.5 billion to the local economy. 

Robert Collins has 18 years of experience representing local governments in Harris and Montgomery Counties.  For the past four years, Robert has been representing the Houston Airport System in real estate transactions.

He will speak about innovations and development opportunities related to Bush Intercontinental Airport, Hobby Airport, and the Houston Spaceport which is under development at Ellington Airport.   

The Announcement
On June 30, 2015, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced that the City of Houston had been approved as home to the United States' 10th licensed commercial spaceport. The Spaceport would be located at Ellington Airport, just south of the downtown area, and would offer the nation's fourth-largest city a focal point for aerospace innovation - a regional center for a cluster of aerospace activities, including but not limited to:

• Component and composite development and fabrication
• Space vehicle assembly

• Zero-gravity scientific and medical experiments
• Microsatellites
• Astronaut training and development
• Space tourism

The Plan
With the Houston application already approved by the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, the Houston Airport System (HAS) now turns its attention toward securing partnership opportunities with leading companies operating within the aerospace industry.

An Award-winning Management Team
As part of Houston Airport System, the spaceport will be run by a high-performance airport management, operations and maintenance team that has been recognized by the FAA for airfield operations and safety.

An Innovation Center
Johnson Space Center and other NASA facilities, coupled with a large subcontractor community of over 80 aerospace companies, provide significant access to an existing, robust aerospace community. As part of this flourishing industry, Houston Spaceport will act as an accelerator for innovation and an incubator for growth.

Connecting the World
Imagine a sub-orbital commercial flight from Houston to Tokyo in less than 3 hours. As we dip our toe into the new waters of near-space travel, we open up doors to opportunities we could only imagine just a few decades ago. Just as the Wright Brothers "shortened the distance" between points on the map when they invented heavier-than-air travel in 1903, commercial spaceflight promises once more to connect the world in ways only recently unimaginable.

Connecting the people, the businesses, the economies and the people of the world to Houston is one of the Spaceport's major goals as we leverage Houston's potential as a major center of aerospace development and operations.

International Access
As a part of the Houston Airport System, Houston Spaceport will seamlessly fit into one of the largest international travel infrastructures on the planet.  Houston Airport System's access to new, growing Latin American sectors is unmatched, and provides exciting opportunities with both private and government aerospace organizations.