One of many largest launch pads at Cape Canaveral Area Power Station will turn out to be vacant later this yr after the ultimate flight of United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV Heavy rocket. SpaceX is trying to make the sprawling facility a brand new house for the Starship launch automobile.
The environmental evaluation for SpaceX’s proposal to take over Area Launch Advanced 37 (SLC-37) at Cape Canaveral is getting underway now, with three in-person public conferences and one digital assembly scheduled for March to gather feedback from native residents, in line with a new web site describing the plan.
Then federal companies, led by the Division of the Air Power, will develop an environmental influence assertion to judge how Starship launch and touchdown operations will have an effect on the land, air, and water round SLC-37, which sits on Area Power property on the Atlantic shoreline.
Environmental research for rocket launch services sometimes take greater than a yr, so it is going to be some time earlier than any main development begins to transform SLC-37 for Starship launches. On this case, federal officers anticipate publishing a draft environmental influence assertion by December, then a closing report by October 2025.
Extra instantly, ULA nonetheless has yet another Delta IV Heavy rocket to launch from SLC-37 in March with a categorized spy satellite tv for pc for the Nationwide Reconnaissance Workplace. As soon as that launch is full, ULA will wind down operations at SLC-37, and ultimately flip over the ability again to the Area Power, which is able to search for a brand new tenant. For a number of months, business sources have pointed to SpaceX because the main contender to take over SLC-37 after ULA is completed with the launch pad.
However that is not fairly a accomplished deal but. Final yr, a senior official at ULA informed Ars on background that the corporate was additionally concerned about sustaining a presence at SLC-37.
ULA’s new Vulcan rocket, which debuted final month and can substitute the Delta IV and Atlas V launch automobiles, makes use of a special launch pad just a few miles up the coast from SLC-37. ULA is upgrading and increasing its floor services at Cape Canaveral to ramp up the Vulcan launch cadence, and the ULA official informed Ars the corporate could wish to proceed utilizing a rocket processing hangar simply south of the Delta IV launch pad for storage and horizontal processing of Vulcan rockets.
Particulars are scarce about every part SpaceX desires to do with SLC-37, however officers wrote on the environmental evaluation web site that SpaceX would “modify, reuse, or demolish the present SLC-37 infrastructure to help Starship-Tremendous Heavy launch and touchdown operations.”
The historical past of SLC-37 dates again to the Sixties, when NASA used the location for eight flights of the Saturn I and Saturn IB rockets to arrange for the Apollo program. The power sat dormant for 30 years till Boeing moved in to prepared SLC-37 for the Delta IV rocket, which has now flown 34 occasions from SLC-37. The launch pad presently features a 330-foot-tall (100-meter) cellular gantry, a set erector, a set umbilical tower, and a flame trench for Delta IV missions.
Starship, the world’s largest rocket, wouldn’t want any of that that infrastructure, so if SpaceX takes over the pad, the ability will probably endure intensive demolition and development.
If SpaceX is not cleared to make use of SLC-37, the corporate might construct a model new launch pad designated Area Launch Advanced 50. If that is the trail SpaceX takes, SLC-50 can be constructed on undeveloped land north of SLC-37 and south of SpaceX’s main launch pad for the Falcon 9 rocket at Area Launch Advanced 40.
Goodbye to LC-49, hi there to SLC-37
SpaceX’s curiosity in establishing store at SLC-37 exhibits the corporate is getting severe about growing a second base for Starship on Florida’s Area Coast. In 2022, SpaceX constructed a launch tower and launch mount for Starship at Launch Advanced 39A (LC-39A), situated at NASA’s Kennedy Area Middle. However the firm made little progress there final yr as groups targeted on Starship check flights from South Texas.
Elon Musk, SpaceX’s founder and CEO, says Starship is the rocket that can make attainable his dream of constructing a settlement on Mars. He has additionally touted Starship as a automobile for point-to-point journey on Earth. Each levels of Starship are designed to be totally and quickly reusable, with the Tremendous Heavy booster and Starship higher stage returning to Earth for propulsive landings. Starship launch pads will double as touchdown pads.
Earlier than any of these goals are realized, Starship must get into orbit. The primary two full-scale Starship check flights final yr did not make it that far, however SpaceX received shut on the second launch in November. SpaceX hopes to attain a near-orbital mission with the third Starship check launch, maybe as quickly as early March.
Ultimately, Musk envisions Starship launching a number of occasions per day on quite a lot of missions, carrying individuals, satellites, cargo, or refueling tankers into orbit. To be able to do that, SpaceX will want lots of launch and touchdown pads. SpaceX has toyed with the thought of floating offshore launch and touchdown platforms, however these plans are on maintain.
Within the near-term, SpaceX plans to construct a second Starship launch tower on the firm’s Starbase check website in Cameron County, Texas. There’s additionally the partially-built launch tower at LC-39A, and now SpaceX has set its sights on SLC-37.
SpaceX was beforehand taking a look at constructing one other Starship launch pad from scratch on NASA property on the Kennedy Area Middle. NASA environmental research for this location, referred to as Launch Advanced 49, kicked off in 2021. Patti Bielling, a NASA spokesperson, informed Ars on Friday the company is now not engaged on Launch Advanced 49.
“Presently, there aren’t any actions involving LC-49 on Kennedy,” Bielling stated. “Any earlier actions concerning LC-49 have been suspended, and no actions have been taken.”
One of many first operational purposes for Starship will likely be to function a human-rated lunar lander for NASA’s Artemis program. SpaceX is growing a model of Starship to ferry astronauts to and from the Moon’s floor, however to ensure that Starship to achieve the Moon, it needs to be refueled in low-Earth orbit. It will require maybe 10 or extra refueling flights utilizing a model of Starship referred to as a tanker, all launching in a matter of weeks. These tanker flights will launch on Tremendous Heavy boosters from pads in Texas and Florida.
In parallel with continued Starship check flights and demonstrating in-space refueling expertise, SpaceX must construct extra launch pads to make all this attainable. Though SpaceX has backpedaled on a number of of its Starship launch pad concepts, the corporate’s curiosity in SLC-37 suggests it nonetheless has large plans for Starship in Florida.