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Group says no to potential spaceport in Marquette County

Marquette, Michigan -- Explored by yooperann is licensed with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/

The Michigan Aerospace Manufacturers Association wants to build a vertical rocket launch site in Marquette County, but a local group is saying “Not so fast.”Dennis Ferraro is President of Citizens for a Safe and Clean Lake Superior. He says the proposed site would be right on the shore of the Great Lakes, near rivers, hiking trails and beaches.

“These are all areas that people come to because they like the quiet, beautiful, wildness of our environment here in the U.P. So it’s just a bad idea all the way around.” 

A horizontal launch site for commercial satellites is planned for Oscoda, and the Chippewa County Airport was selected as the spaceport command and control center.  

Officials with MAMA say the spaceports will create thousands of jobs in the state.