The state of Florida is “years away” from acquiring a NASA-owned property located at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., (KSC) that would serve as its “holy grail” for attracting commercial space endeavors to the state.
Space Florida Chief of Strategic Alliances Dale Ketcham told Defense Daily Tuesday the property, known as Shiloh, would serve as a commercial spaceport, taking advantage of Space Coast launch infrastructure in Florida without the red tape involved with flying at sensitive national security facilities like Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and KSC. It would be far enough from Cape Canaveral or KSC as the national security and space exploration missions, respectively, of the two facilities would not interfere with commercial operations.
Florida has requested about 200 acres, located about eight to 10 miles north of Boeing’s [BA] Commercial Crew facility at KSC, for one launch pad and limited infrastructure, including processing and fueling facilities. This, he said, would minimize environmental footprint. Ketcham said KSC property covers about 150,000 acres. Shiloh was originally deeded to NASA in the 1960s to serve as a buffer for lunar missions, he said.
According to Ketcham, the problem is Shiloh is designated a wildlife refuge and, unlike most refuges in the United States, owned by another federal agency.
“We’re undergoing a very long environmental impact statement,” Ketcham said in a telephone interview. Environmental impact statements (EIS) are considered the opening salvos in government efforts to reappropriate land.
Ketcham said there are a variety of approaches for NASA to deed the property to Florida. The state, he said, would prefer to have the property returned to it. Ketcham said a use agreement with NASA, one that would simply allow this activity to take place on its KSC property, could work.
“[A use agreement] would enable our activities to occur that don’t directly involve NASA property and safety, oversight and regulations,” Ketcham said.
Florida is facing intense pressure from other states, including Texas, Georgia and North Carolina, which seek to attract the growing commercial space market that Georgia values at $304 billion. Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is building its own launch facility in Brownsville, Texas.
Georgia is marketing a former rocket testing facility in Camden County, in the southeast portion of the state along the Atlantic Ocean and Florida border, as ideal for space vehicle manufacturing and launches. It said this site would have nearly unrestricted access to the ocean over a wide range of orbital inclinations. Ketcham said an EIS for Camden County has either started or will start soon.
New Mexico also has a spaceport called Spaceport America that hosts suborbital launches while Alabama is also contemplating a spaceport of its own, according to WAAY TV.
“Competition between states to provide the most commercially-friendly spaceports is real and growing and our job is to keep Florida on top of it,” Ketcham said.
Ketcham said Space Florida is concerned that competing spaceports could outpace the Space Coast by the time Florida obtains the Shiloh property.
“You’re [darn] right, that’s why we’re working our tails off,” he said.
Space Florida, in the meantime, is focusing on making launching from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and KSC as accommodating as possible. Lockheed Martin Commercial Launch Services (LMCLS), a division of Lockheed Martin [LMT], is slated to fly a pair of Atlas Vs from the Cape in the near future. It is scheduled to launch MEXSAT-2 for Mexico. Originally, this launch was to take place as early as this year. LMCLS will also launch a satellite for EchoStar [SATS] from the Cape late next year.
While not perfect, the Air Force and NASA are a “lot better,” and more accommodating than they used to be, Ketcham said. Space Florida is Florida’s economic development organization.