ONE of the Caribbean’s last jungles could soon echo to the sound of rocket
launches. Guyana has agreed to sell a large tract of pristine swampy rainforest
to a Texan rocket-launch company, Beal Aerospace, for just $7.50 a
hectare.
The deal, signed last month, replaces Beal’s original plan to build its
$250 million launch pad on the Caribbean island of Sombrero in Anguilla,
which angered environmental scientists
(New Scientist, 12 February, p 22).
Guyanese prime minister Samuel Hinds hailed the project—which could
see more than 20 commercial satellite launches a year—as “a quantum leap
for Guyana into…
