Our team at KSC has already done a great job creating a thriving spaceport to serve both NASA and commercial needs.Three pairs of satellites comprise the TROPICS constellation and will work in concert to provide microwave observations of storms on Earth, measuring precipitation, temperature, and humidity of a storm as often as every 50 minutes. For the time being, NASA will continue to focus on enhancing the efficiencies and capabilities at our existing launch facility. However, such a proposed merger would require a great deal of work and effort. "This, and other ambitious concepts for the future should all be given due consideration. "I’m glad to see big ideas being proposed such as a potential merger," he told Ars. Would NASA be willing to listen as well? The space agency administrator, Jim Bridenstine, said yes. But what the Space Force and Burt have signaled to the broader space community is that if there's a better, more efficient way to do this, which cuts red tape for emerging commercial players, they're willing to listen. If that means, as it has done in the past, that the military has to own and operate every facet of a launch site, it will. The primary goal of the Space Force is to execute its mission, which includes getting into space quickly and reliably. Advertisementīut clearly, change is possible. These would all be subject to negotiation, and it may all come to naught. Lots of questions remain about who would manage a combined spaceport in Florida, who would determine what missions have priority, and so on. This agency in turn renamed National after President Ronald Reagan and then found private investments to modernize airports for growing commercial demands. One analogy being discussed is the transfer of National and Dulles Airports from the Federal Aviation Administration in 1984 to the new Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. It's been a great cost cutting and saving technique." The Space Force would like to support the commercial space sector by easing their access to the range. On SpaceX reusing rockets, Burt said, "That is absolutely an amazing feat, and it's always amazing to watch rockets returned back to the pad and to be seeing them being reused. These are not seen as core functions of the military.įurther Reading Space Force says it will fly on a used Falcon 9 rocket for the first timeĪt the same time, the Space Force is becoming increasingly excited about the innovation and agility of the commercial launch sector. It has also been managing leases for several launch companies, including United Launch Alliance, SpaceX, Blue Origin, Firefly Aerospace, and Relativity Space, with more on the way. First, the Space Force recognizes that it is spending a lot of money dealing with roads and other infrastructure at Cape Canaveral and its other major spaceport, Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. "How do we get to that same thing in the spaceport? I think together that's what we're going to have to cooperatively work on."Ī couple of forces seem to be at play here. "How do we get to a similar airport structure where we have a military base airport and runway sitting side by side with the commercial runway and airport?" Burt said, addressing some of the challenges facing planners. Advertisementĭuring a meeting of the Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee last month, the director of operations and communications for the Space Force, Major General DeAnna Burt, said the US military planned to soon issue a letter that would establish an interagency process to look at some sort of national spaceport authority. One of the initiatives being led by John William "Jay" Raymond, the chief of Space Operations for the Space Force, is the "Range of the Future." And one of the ideas the Space Force is considering to increase access to space is pretty radical-merging its historic Cape Canaveral facility with NASA's Kennedy Space Center under a single spaceport authority. The US Space Force is considering all these questions as it takes control of Air Force assets related to space. Who should have priority to launch? And how many chances should the military missions get before the commercial launch gets an opportunity? And is there a better way to manage launch ranges in the 21st century now that more and more commercial rockets are coming to US spaceports? Having three rockets on launch pads made for some difficult decisions. The second SpaceX rocket, carrying 60 Starlink satellites, stood on the NASA side of the fence, at Launch Complex-39A at Kennedy Space Center. The first two missions were located on the Air Force side of the fence, which is managed by the US Space Force's 45th Space Wing. Further Reading SpaceX gets back on track with a stunning Starlink launch near sunrise
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