VAN HORN, Texas — As Blue Origin prepares for the second human flight to space, there's a friendly competition brewing in the West Texas desert.
Some people are saying Van Horn is becoming the new Space City, not Houston.
"Good business," Vance Cottrell said. "It's a lot of fun."
In the West Texas desert, the sound of trucks and tractors is common, but over the years, Cottrell has added spacecraft noise to the list.
"You know, when everybody thinks about space, they think about Houston. Well, now they can start thinking of Van Horn because we got it going on," Cottrell said.
As an alfalfa farmer, Cottrell's property neighbors the Jeff Bezos spaceport.
"So, when they do the testing there's so many flames, fire, smoke and dust what have you can see it from here," Cottrell said.
Joe Anchondo spends a lot of time on Cottrell's farm.
"You feel the ground shake a little bit," Anchondo said. "The ground shakes a little bit."
He knows exactly where to look.
"Right there -- between the dark bush and the end of the mountain," Anchondo said.
Cottrell still hasn't met his high-flying neighbor, but he's been introduced to New Shepard.
"It's a lot of fun. It's hard to imagine they're that close and they got all that going on because growing up in Van Horn you never had that sort of excitement going on," Cottrell said.