SpaceX seeks to launch and land Starship rockets at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station
SpaceX officials want to launch and land Starship-Super Heavy rockets from a future site at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and U.S. Air Force officials are studying potential environmental impacts.
SpaceX's proposed Starship site is Launch Complex 37 at the northern portion of the military installation. That's where United Launch Alliance sends up its Delta IV rockets, but the program is retiring and the last rocket should launch sometime this year.
The alternative Starship site is a proposed new complex, which would be constructed on undeveloped property north of LC-37. This would become Launch Complex 50.
In early March, the Air Force will conduct a trio of open houses — in Cocoa, Titusville and Cape Canaveral — to collect written comments on SpaceX's proposed actions and alternatives. The Air Force is the lead federal agency in the Starship environmental study, bolstered by cooperating agencies NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Coast Guard.
These public meetings will feature exhibit boards and "have a 'come and go' format with no formal presentation or opportunity for public testimony," according to spaceforcestarshipeis.com, the environmental study website.
SpaceX's two-stage Starship rocket — the most powerful in history — is the company's next-generation launch system designed to transport humans, cargo and payloads to Earth orbit, the moon, and Mars. The company has been testing it at a remote launch site near the southernmost tip of Texas.
Starship's lower booster stage is Super Heavy, outfitted with 33 Raptor engines. The booster lifts Starship, a 164-foot-tall spacecraft. Starship produces more thrust than the Saturn V rocket of the Apollo era and NASA's Space Launch System.
Starship's first test launch exploded shortly after liftoff last April from the company's Starbase operations area near Brownsville, Texas. A second test flight also exploded in midair in November, though that mission was considered more successful.
Brevard County public meetings about a possible Starship launch site at the Cape will take place from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at these locations:
March 5: Catherine Schweinsberg Rood Central Library, 308 Forrest Ave., Cocoa.
March 6: Titusville Civic Center, 4220 S. Hopkins Ave., Titusville.
March 7: Radisson Resort at the Port, 8701 Astronaut Blvd., Cape Canaveral.
In addition, a virtual public meeting featuring a narrated slideshow is scheduled at 6 p.m. March 12 at spaceforcestarshipeis.com. Air Force officials will accept public comments through March 22 at the website and by emailing [email protected] (use the subject line "Starship EIS").
A draft environmental impact study is scheduled for publication in December, with the final study due in September 2025.
At NASA's Kennedy Space Center, which abuts CCSFS, SpaceX proposes to expand its Roberts Road Operations Area by 100 acres, according to a NASA environmental impact study.
Written comments regarding Starship environmental input can be mailed by March 22 to CCSFS Starship EIS c/o Jacobs, 5401 W. Kennedy Blvd. #300, Tampa, FL 33609.
For the latest news from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/space.
Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY (for more of his stories, click here.) Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or [email protected]. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: SpaceX Starship launches at Cape Canaveral? Air Force studying possibility
