Call For Establishment Of European Spaceport In Kalamata

A Greek space researcher has called for the establishment of a space research and high- technology center and a space port to be built by the Greek city of Kalamata, which is the southernmost port on the Peloponnese. In the Schiller Institute's Marshall Plan for the Balkans, this port is to be developed as an entry point from Africa where goods can be transported north by a proposed railway. The proposal was made by Dr. Periklis Papadopoulos, a former NASA researcher and currently professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at San Jose State University in California.

"Kalamata is ideal for creating a European Spaceport because of its geographical position," said Papadopoulos. Claiming that it could generate a trillion dollars a year in revenue, he made the statement at the 1st Peloponnese Development Conference held in Tripoli. He said the general manager of NASA is due to visit Greece next July in order to sign a memorandum of cooperation with the Greek government, although no further details were reported in the media.

With this project the Peloponnese can become a center for space activity. The Schiller Institute's Marshall Plan referenced the NESTOR project, which is a neutrino telescope and undersea laboratory near the Greek village of Pilos, not far from Kalamata. The "telescope" which is an array that has been placed offshore in the deepest part of the Mediterranean to detect neutrinos. Also in the Northern Peloponnese is home to Greece's two telescopes of the National Observatory including a 1.2m Cassegrain telescope, located at the Astronomical Station Kryoneri, in the Northern Peloponnese and the new 2.3m Aristarchos telescope, a Ritchey-Chretien reflector, is located on the top of Helmos mountain (2350m) also in the Northern Peloponnese.

Source - http://larouchepac.com/node/26399