WASHINGTON — NASA is balking at plans by Space Florida to build a new commercial launch pad near the Kennedy Space Center, and now officials — in both Tallahassee and Washington, D.C. — are racing to persuade the space agency to change its mind.
Why the hurry?
SpaceX of California is expected — possibly this year — to choose where it wants to locate its next launch pad — a potential cash cow for whatever state lands it.
Texas has an early edge, and if Florida doesn’t show progress soon in securing the necessary land, then the state could lose out.
“The future of space in Florida will be decided in the next few months,” said Dale Ketcham, director of the University of Central Florida’s Spaceport Research and Technology Institute.
Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll and members of Space Florida, the state’s aerospace-booster group, were to meet Wednesday in Tallahassee to plan their next step, and those close to the group said Space Florida has only about four months to make a breakthrough.
The proposed Florida site is the abandoned citrus town of Shiloh, which straddles the border of Volusia and Brevard counties and sits at the northern boundary of Kennedy Space Center.
State officials want to convert 150 acres of that property into a spaceport with two launch pads far enough from the space center and Cape Canaveral that a company such as SpaceX could launch its rockets without having to schedule missions between ones flown by NASA and the Air Force.
But before Space Florida can do anything, it must get the land from NASA. Last year, Carroll sent NASA a note asking as much.
“Florida believes that the properties identified in this request are excess to the needs of the U.S. government and such properties are not otherwise needed for public use,” she wrote.
NASA, however, saw it differently.
“The property identified in your request has not been reported as excess. Furthermore, this property continues to serve NASA long-term mission requirements, as a buffer zone between NASA mission and local communities and as a potential site for future mission requirements,” responded agency officials.
Since then, NASA and Space Florida officials said they are working on a compromise, possibly even leasing the land. Indeed, NASA recently released a statement that noted it has not rejected the state’s proposal and was looking to find another path.
Environmentalists fear another spaceport could harm the 15 or more threatened or endangered species in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.
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