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Space Force wants a third heavy-lift spaceport running by 2030
Ars Technica reported Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant said the Space Force needs a new heavy-lift launch site by 2030, without a chosen location or land plan.
- New headline Was: “Space Force seeks third heavy-lift spaceport by 2030, site undecided”
- Our desk updated its story
- New headline Was: “Space Force general says U.S. needs a third heavy-lift spaceport by 2030”
- Our desk updated its story
U.S. Space Force leaders want a third heavy-lift launch site operating by 2030 to ease crowding at Florida and California ranges, Ars Technica reported, but Pentagon officials have not chosen a location or how to acquire land1.
Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, who heads Space Systems Command and oversees military launch procurement, described the date as aspirational this week1. "We need this capability by 2030, but I'm also a pragmatist," Garrant said, according to Ars1.
Air Force Secretary Troy Meink first described a search for a third launch base in May, Ars reported, citing a congressionally mandated study of Space Force launch infrastructure that identified a need for another site capable of heavy and super-heavy launches1.
The Trump administration released a space transportation policy in August that endorsed more launch and reentry sites for commercial and military missions, Ars said1.
Ars reported 175 orbital launch attempts last year from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Kennedy Space Center in Florida and Vandenberg Space Force Base in California1. Space Force officials project those established spaceports will need to support 700 launches per year by 20361.
A third site would take some demand off limited real estate at the Cape and Vandenberg and provide what Space Force leaders call geographic resiliency if a disaster or attack took either range offline, Ars reported1.
The federal government already owns NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia for suborbital tests and smaller satellite launches, Ars said, and small rockets can fly from Alaska's state-owned Pacific Spaceport Complex1.
Garrant said a new spaceport would require a strong partnership with local and state governments and that officials have no decision timelines yet1. Asked whether the service might lease land at a privately owned base such as a SpaceX site planned in southern Louisiana, he said public-private partnerships, a new federal installation, state land, and commercial land all remain possibilities, each with pros and cons, and that no option has been ruled out1.
