SpaceX have just been given approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to build their massive 56.5 acre spaceport on the Gulf of Mexico, right on the Texas-Mexico border. Of course there is still a lot of work to be done, such as building the damn thing, but it’s a massive step towards making their spaceport a reality.
The FAA issued a Record of Decision, which means that the agency would be willing to grant launch licenses to the company, allowing them to operate out of the new site. The FAA says that it would be likely that any requests from SpaceX to launch as many as 10 of their Falcon 9 rockets and two Falcon Heavy rockets per year from the privately owned site. Meaning they could theoretically have a launch each month.
SpaceX still need approval from several other agencies, including the Texas Department of Transportation complete their site plan, as they’ll be wanting to build new roads, utility lines and more. Yet with the most important part, being allowed to launch rockets, their plans should be pretty easy from here on out.
SpaceX currently launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, but the new plan means they’ll be able to play around with their space toys on their own turf and timeline.
Thank you Motherboard for providing us with this information.
Image courtesy of Motherboard.
