Launchpad Shortage Worries U.S. Space Companies

The problem is that only three sites in Florida and California handle most U.S. rocket launches, and those locations are expected to become increasingly congested as companies and regulators schedule more missions.

Last year marked a record in U.S. spaceflight with 145 launches reaching orbit, or five times as many as in 2017, according to data from astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, who closely tracks space activities. SpaceX-the world's top rocket launcher-conducted 134 of that total.

Government officials and industry executives fear that backed-up launch sites would restrict payloads from getting to space in a timely manner.

A significant weather event or an accident could put one of the major spaceports out of commission for months or even years, said George Nield, the former top space official at the Federal Aviation Administration.

"We're so dependent on space, to put all your eggs in one basket is a risky strategy," he said.

Operators of smaller and nascent spaceports, including those in landlocked states and at sea, are jockeying for new business, but face their own set of expansion hurdles.

For decades, rocket launches were relatively rare and there was little appetite for creating new sites. The most-prominent locations then and currently are tied to military bases and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Kennedy Space Center.

Several spaceport operators are now trying to take advantage of the crunch forming at the main sites. The Pacific Spaceport Complex, located on Alaska's Kodiak Island, has never seen more than three rocket launches in a year.

Still, it is seeking federal clearance to launch up to 25 times annually, and its forecast for flights five years out is already starting to fill up, said John Oberst, the chief executive of Alaska Aerospace Corp., which oversees the Kodiak spaceport. The facility is looking to coax smaller rocket companies affected by congestion to its launchpads, Oberst Launches can't just occur anywhere. Rockets are typically sent up from coastal areas, where vehicles soar over water and avoid the risks of flying above populated areas.

Developing new launch facilities along coastal areas is difficult, as locals often worry about disruptions and noise. A proposal to develop a new launch site along the coast in southeast Georgia unraveled a couple of years ago amid public opposition.

Nearly two decades ago, a spaceport in Oklahoma became the first inland site to receive an FAA license for plane-based spaceflights, where an aircraft would ferry a rocket to a high altitude before the rocket detaches to fly to space. The site has yet to conduct a launch. Officials at the spaceport have commissioned a study to determine how to safely launch rockets over land.

"There has to be a first mover, and we're ready to move," said Bailey J. Siegfried, vice chair of the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority's board of directors.

Launch at sea

Tom Marotta founded Spaceport in 2022 to swallow up rising launch demand.

His idea: launches from boats in the ocean.The Boeing Sea Launch System, an international collaboration that launched a couple dozen times from an old floating oil rig, provided a blueprint, he said.

Using a 180-foot-long former Navy ship, Marotta's company loads the rocket at a dock in Mississippi, does dress rehearsals on land and sails into the Gulf of Mexico once seas are calm enough to launch.

In Michigan and Maine, where proposals are in the early stages, the "build it and they will come" model is no longer viable, directors said.

Instead, they aim to build a space ecosystem that is financially sound without having to rely on rocket launches.

Maine's proposal for a complex includes a data and analytics center, a research-anddevelopment hub eventually, a launch site.

"We have maybe less than 10 years to make this happen, because of where the industry is going," said Terry Shehata, executive director of the Maine Space Corp. "We don't want to get locked out."

Handling demand

Government officials are trying to get ahead of the launch congestion. The FAA is leading a group of government agencies to develop a national spaceport strategy, with a report on the matter expected to be released this year, a spokeswoman said.

The Space Force is carrying out projects aimed at boosting capacity at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida and Vandenberg Space Force Base near Santa Barbara, Calif.

That work ranges from identifying more land to develop at those facilities to reducing the effect of clear areas during major rocket operations, when other activities have to shut down, Brig.

Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen said at a conference last month. Companies have tussled over control of pads at busy spaceports.

SpaceX has conducted its launch ramp-up largely from Florida, and is working to bring Starship-the name of the powerful vehicle it is developing to the Kennedy Space Center and an open pad within the Space Force's Cape Canaveral base.

Rivals have raised concerns about those plans, including potential congestion the huge rocket might cause. SpaceX didn't respond to a request for comment.

Early last year, the Space Force began a review of SpaceX potentially launching Starship from its open pad. In November, the military branch sought more information from the industry about that site, saying it wanted a rocket company to use a Super Heavy vehicle with certain capabilities on it.

Jeff Bezos' space company, Blue Origin, responded to the military's request for information, a spokesman said.