SpaceX’s ambitious plans to launch its giant Starship rocket as many as 44 times a year from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center have caused a stir among some of its competitors. Late last month, Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance filed comments calling on regulators to ensure minimal disruption to other launch providers in the area, with Blue Origin even proposing to restrict Starship operations to certain times — and give other launch providers the right of first refusal on conflicting launches.
But SpaceX may have even more ambitious plans for a second launch pad right next door: Space Launch Complex (SLC)-37 at Cape Canaveral Space Station (CCSFS). In a series of public meetings held in March, the public was invited to comment on plans to launch Starship from SLC-37 up to 76 times a year. That would mean SpaceX aims to launch its next-generation rocket up to 120 times a year from a six-mile area off the Florida coast.
The U.S. Space Force is currently preparing a draft environmental assessment that will be released to the public this winter, and that document will contain SpaceX’s projected final launch cadence. A Space Force representative confirmed to TechCrunch that the launch cadence numbers could change between now and then. Those numbers could be affected by the pace of Starship development in the coming months or even the number of jay nests discovered during the environmental assessment process. The endangered jay, a bird native to Florida, is listed as threatened on the Endangered Species List.
Yet as recently as a few weeks ago, SpaceX’s competitors were still using the number 76 as a benchmark for the company’s plans, according to a person familiar with the talks. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Expansion into Florida and Texas
SLC-37 is a historic launch pad at CCSFS, home to NASA’s Saturn rocket in the 1960s and, more recently, United Launch Alliance’s Delta IV series rockets. The pad is now inactive after ULA launched its Delta IV Heavy rocket for the last time in April. The Space Force announced in February that it was preparing to begin what’s called an environmental impact statement, a comprehensive regulatory document that examines the environmental impacts of proposed activities, related to a Starship launch from the pad.
The FAA is preparing a separate report on the impacts of SpaceX’s planned Starship launch from Kennedy Space Center’s pad 39A. The two studies aim to examine the environmental impacts of Starship’s launch and landing operations, which will include the return of heavy boosters to the launch site, similar to how SpaceX’s Falcon rockets operate.
The Space Force also considers another alternative in its SLC-37 environmental statement, which is for SpaceX to build an entirely new launch pad, currently called SLC-50. Either way, it would likely involve a major buildout, including deluge pools, fuel tanks, and a detention tower—and then more than 120 launches per year from both sites combined.
The two Florida launch pads will join the existing Starship launch tower at SpaceX’s Starbase launch facility in southeast Texas, as well as a second tower currently under construction at the same location. In the near future, SpaceX could have four operational Starship launch sites.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has very ambitious plans for Starship, which he sees as a key enabler for colonizing Mars and “expanding the light of consciousness” across the universe. He eventually wants to launch Starship multiple times a day, with each launch delivering hundreds of tons of cargo to low Earth orbit or beyond. The company has a separate goal of ramping up Starship manufacturing facilities to enable the production of one second stage Starship per day.
Blue Origin, ULA oppose
As part of the preparation process, the public was invited to comment on the scope of the plans before a draft environmental impact statement was released. While public comments on SLC-37 have not yet been made public, comments on Pad 39A at Kennedy have been made public — including strong statements from Blue Origin and United Launch Alliance about the plans there. Both companies expressed particular concern about the impact such a high flight rate could have on other launch providers with infrastructure at Kennedy and Cape Canaveral.
“A single launch of Starship would likely disrupt other launches in the area and cause significant environmental impacts, as detailed below. The impacts would certainly be magnified if it came from two launch sites in close proximity.” ULA said in its comment:.
“For example, SpaceX intends to conduct up to 44 launches per year from LC-39A. If SpaceX aims to achieve a similar number from SLC-37, that would result in nearly 100 launches per year — or one every three days or so,” the comment continued.
Blue Origin, which aims to launch its New Glenn rocket from LC-36 at Cape Canaveral, He suggested a number of mitigating factors. The letter made clear that the government viewed the two-site launches as a zero-sum game, and included a proposal that SpaceX (or the government) be required to compensate third parties for losses caused by Starship operations — including business disruptions.