ORLANDO, Fla. — With congestion growing at the nation’s major launch sites in California and Florida, operators of inland spaceports are seeking creative ways to host orbital launches.
The number of commercial launches licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration more than tripled between fiscal year 2020, with 31 licensed launches, and fiscal year 2023, with 106. The FAA is forecasting 111 launches in fiscal year 2024, according to data presented by Pam Underwood, director of the FAA’s Office of Spaceports, in a Jan. 29 presentation at the annual meeting of the Global Spaceport Alliance here.
That growth, though, has largely been at federal ranges: Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Kennedy Space Center in Florida and Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Federal ranges accounted for 51% of licensed launches in fiscal year 2020, growing to 78% in 2023.
“Why? Infrastructure, capabilities, services, are all readily available at those locations,” she said. “That’s where industry has gravitated towards.”
Those facilities are also designed to support vertical orbital launches, which accounted for more than 80% of licensed launches in recent years. While there are 14 FAA-licensed launch sites, many of them are in inland locations that traditionally have been unable to host orbital launches because of range safety issues.
One spaceport is trying to change that. Spaceport America in New Mexico, best known for hosting Virgin Galactic suborbital flights, has been working to win funding for an “Orbital Launch Challenge” prize. The competition would award $2 million to the first company to receive an FAA license for, and later attempt, an orbital launch from Spaceport America.
“What I’m disappointed in is that the Space Force and others are very focused on the Cape and Vandenberg and Wallops,” said Scott McLaughlin, executive director of Spaceport America, in an interview. “There’s no emphasis on making…
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