A desert airdrome in Mojave, California is on the final glide path to getting government approval for becoming an inland gateway to space.

"Its what happens when you energize an emerging industry. You stimulate innovative thinkingand thats what happened," said Stuart Witt, Mojave Airport manager. "I think its going to be a wild ride the next 20 years as this industry emerges," he told SPACE.com.

Mojave Airports application to become the first certified inland spaceport has been under review by FAA/AST. A public meeting was held in December 2003 regarding the airports environmental assessment as required by the National Environmental Policy Act and the California Environmental Quality Act.

"There are no showstoppers. Were going to get our license," a confident Witt said. FAA/AST signoff of the license is anticipated in late June, he said, with July 7 the outside date that the government has to respond by law to the Mojave Airport application.

After a year-and-a-half of effort, Witt and his associates clearly suffered paper-cuts in the process of filing need-to-fill-out government forms.

Countless square boxes were "Xd" on questionnaires. Statutes regarding regulation of propellants, object-free zones, and public safety issues had to be addressed. The boundaries of the spaceport needed to be defined and how best to operate space vehicles in national airspace.

Furthermore, at times when Mojave Airport becomes a spaceport, rules must be followed in releasing Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) and Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFRs) to other air traffic.

Running a spaceport also means keeping a watchful eye out for Gopherus agassizii. For those of you still living in your shell, thats the desert tortoise, found in the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts of southern California. This tortoise was listed as threatened under the California state Endangered Species Act in 1989.

"Ironicallyat 300 takeoffs and landings a day, nobody asked us to ever do a tortoise check. But before I can clear a spaceship to land, I have to do a tortoise check of the primary runway," Witt said.

Witt said both the FAA/AST office and his Mojave team learned a great deal in moving toward gaining spaceport status. In working together, thorny matters were ironed out, he noted.

"Im sure that I havent been that easy to live with because I get a little frustrated with the bureaucracy at times," Witt admitted. "Im a doerand we operate here at the speed of business."

A lot of existing Federal statutes have been written, Witt said, with the mindset that you stick a person on top of a pointed missile and shoot them straight up.

"The FAA is now finding that the statutes as crafted dont fit. So now they have to be very liberal in their interpretations of the law in order to accommodate the emerging technologies," Witt explained.

Witt said he expects Spaceport Mojave to become a magnet for runway-to-space projects.

"I cant imagine why not. Its always about location. We have air space. We have an encroachment-free airport. Were close to the largest market in the world. Its a natural. Thats why Mojave is here in the first place," Witt said.

Today, the Mojave Airport serves as a home for companies involved in modification and flight test of major military jet and civilian aircraft, aircraft storage, and other high-tech industries.

Mojave Airport is a leading civilian flight test center and is home to some of the most unique and exotic aircraft ever built. That includes the Voyager, the plane that made the first-ever, non-stop, unrefueled flight around the world. Its design was led by Burt Rutan, chief of Scaled Composites.

In Spaceport Mojave mode, the location already comes complete with a popular eatery for breakfast and lunch. The Voyager Restaurant has already deified in delicacies Rutans aeronautical skills.

The menu lists the "Long EZ" an aircraft designed by Rutan -- served up as two eggs any style. Then theres "The White Knight" that consists of bacon and eggs. Or you can order-up the ever-popular "SpaceShipOne", a plate full of ham and eggs.

Other food items include sausage patties and eggs labeled "The Blackbird" after the super-fast U.S. Air Force reconnaissance plane. Another selection is "The Hangar Queen", a plain omelet of three eggs whipped and folded.

And of course you cant miss "Joudis Crash Landing" featuring two poached eggs served on corn tortillas, topped off with mixed cheddar, jack cheese, and special Ranchero sauce.

One of the first "outings" for Spaceport Mojave is expected to be the bid by Scaled Composites and its SpaceShipOne to snag the $10 million Ansari X Prize cash award. That purse will be won by the first team that privately finances, builds and launches a three-person spaceship that rockets up to 62.5 miles (100 kilometers) altitude, returns safely to Earth, then repeats that trek with the same ship within two weeks.

"Under Witts leadership, Mojave has become an amazing incubator for entrepreneurial space companies such as Scaled Composites, XCOR and Interorbital," Peter Diamandis, X Prize Chairman told SPACE.com. "I'm excited that this historic venue should become one of the first truly commercial spaceports."

Diamandis saluted the efforts by Witt and his associates in hacking away at Federal red tape so that space ships can smoothly sail up and through blue sky.

Earlier this month, the X Prize Foundation announced it had selected the Southwest Regional Spaceport -- a proposed site near Las Cruses, New Mexico -- to stage the X Prize Cup. That two-week long extravaganza would be initiated in 2005 and have a variety of privately-financed, people-carrying suborbital space ships competing for prizes.

"Getting into space is hard work. We need places such as Mojave that make it easier for young space companies by helping to manage the risk, interface with the government, and provide a can-do attitude," Diamandis said. "I wouldn't be surprised if places like Mojave and Los Cruces became the birth places of the next Boeings and Lockheeds of space."