Spaceport Availability Seen as Increasing Hurdle for Growing Launch Volumes

The growing cadence of commercial space launches is facing a bottleneck from lack of available launch sites, space launch experts told us. A plethora of launch providers is operating or developing launch capability, but facilities “are where we started to get the hiccups," said space lawyer Bryce Kennedy, Association of Commercial Space Professionals president.

Of 180 successful orbital launches globally last year, 76 were from the U.S., with another 62 out of China, per launch tracking by Jonathan McDowell, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian astrophysicist. For the U.S., that's up from 43 in 2021 and 34 in 2020. SpaceX had 61 of the 76 U.S. launches. And it's likely to do close to 90 launches this year, said Hans Carlson, CEO of launch and satellite consultancy TZero. Launch facility availability is "not quite" a crunch but could become one in the next couple of years if launch trends continue, he said.

Most space launch activity in the U.S. is at Florida's Cape Canaveral and California's Vandenberg Space Force Base, space launch experts said. Substantial damage to either could mean big limits to U.S. access to space, said space consultant George Nield, Global Spaceport Alliance chairman.

There's an increased push for smaller commercial launchers to use Virginia's Wallops Flight Facility, said Carlson. Canaveral is running out of space, with several launch providers sharing a pad, Carlson said. Its aging infrastructure also needs upgrade, he said. Wallops, meanwhile, has limited capacity for additional space, he said. DOD, in an FY 2024 legislative proposal, asked Congress for the ability to charge commercial launch providers for indirect overhead costs for use of government facilities. That would help fund infrastructure work and further investments in government-operated launch facilities, Carlson said.

Federal funding traditionally has supported a variety of infrastructure such as roads, railways and seaports, but there's no federal program for funding support for space-related infrastructure, Nield said.

The FAA has licensed spaceports in 10 states. But satellites are designed and built to be launched on particular rockets, which require particular launch pads or runways, Nield said. Rockets and launch facilities "are not all interchangeable," he said. Alaska's Pacific Spaceport Complex is particularly remote, with logistical issues, Carlson said. "You would think there would be a larger cadence" of suborbital test launches out of New Mexico's Spaceport America, but its remoteness also creates hurdles for getting people there and setting up facilities, said Kennedy. He said current spaceport restrictions that limit facilities to suborbital launches need to be relaxed.

Beyond the FAA-licensed sites, there are close to a dozen pending applications or spaceport plans around the U.S., Nield said. But they likely won't be available soon. FAA licensing of spaceports focuses foremost on trying to guarantee launch and reentry safety, Nield said. Agency rules mainly involve public safety and the feasibility of flying a particular rocket in a particular direction in a way that won't endanger the public, he said. FAA licensing includes required National Environmental Policy Act compliance, which can mean extensive studies about possible issues such as noise, pollution and historical site impact, he said. The NEPA process can take years, he said.

The rules for facilities solely licensed to one operator are more flexible, but few launch operators have the financial wherewithal for their own launch facility, Kennedy said. SpaceX and Blue Origin each have private exclusive-use licensed facilities in Texas.

Spaceports also can face community opposition, Carlson said. In February, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled Camden County had to abide by a 2022 referendum in which county voters opposed the creation of Spaceport Camden. Carlson said the pending litigation brought by environmental groups against the FAA for its approval of SpaceX operations in Texas (see 2305010055) also highlights the challenge to creating more spaceports. "There's a lot of pushback," echoed Kennedy.