On Thursday, three Paso Robles High School students presented at the National Science Foundation Spaceport Conference at Allegretto Resort, speaking about how much a spaceport nearby would benefit them.
"Time and time again, I see students and the limitations on where they can go in high school," said Evan Johnston, an advanced-placement physics teacher at Paso Robles High School. "Being able to have students that are so young explore concepts so advanced and push kind of these boundaries and figure out where they want to go with their future and give them a leg up over students from all over the country."
"We have various programs here that would love to have a spaceport that we could use," said Anthony Williams, a senior at Paso Robles High School. "Like we do a bunch of rocketry and a bunch of other aviation-oriented things."
They say that the STEM classes they have at their high school are setting them up for success, and they feel that a spaceport would add to that.
"It's an amazing opportunity to have this — it's a really rare thing, there's not really a lot of these around the country," said Grant Acevedo, a junior at Paso Robles High School. "So to have this opportunity to bring in all this new stuff, there's possibility for internships, some new industries to come in, and there's going to be all kinds of STEM activities for students to get involved in."
Johnston adds that a nearby spaceport would also change what he is able to teach his students.
"Having a spaceport would provide just a new tier of opportunities on things that we could do in our courses with our freshmen, our sophomores, and our juniors and even more with my AP physics class," he said.
Funding for the spaceport is the next big hurdle.
Last August, KSBY told you about a $530,000 grant that will go toward modernizing the Paso Robles Municipal Airport, including plans for the spaceport.
So far, five organizations have submitted letters of intent to help with the spaceport plan: Cal Poly, Stellar Exploration, UARX Space Solutions, Wagner Star Industries, and Gran Systems.
