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But SpaceX may have even more challenging plans for a second launching pad decently next room access : Space Launch Complex ( SLC)-37 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station ( CCSFS ) . At a serial publication of public meetings obtain in March , the populace was invited to comment on plans to establish Starship from SLC-37 up to 76 times per yr . That would mean SpaceX aims to plunge its next - gen arugula up to 120 time per year within a six - naut mi region on the Florida sea-coast .
The U.S. Space Force is currently preparing the draft environmental assessment that will be release to the public this wintertime , and that written document will comprise SpaceX ’s last hoped-for launch cadence . A Space Force instance emphasise to TechCrunch that launch cadence number could change from now until then . Such numbers could be influenced by the pace of Starship ’s development in the coming months or even by the number of scrub jay nests discover during the EA process . Scrub jay , a bird aboriginal to Florida , are list as threatened on the Endangered Species inclination .
However , as recently as a few weeks ago , SpaceX ’s competitors were still using the number 76 as a bench mark for the company ’s architectural plan , according to a person conversant with the talks . The society did not immediately retort a request for input .
Scaling in Florida and Texas
SLC-37 is a historic launch launch pad at CCSFS , home to NASA ’s Saturn rocket in the sixties and , more late , United Launch Alliance ’s Delta IV serial projectile . The pad is now inactive after ULA flew its Delta IV Heavy for the final time in April . The Space Force herald in February that it was prepare to kick off what ’s known as an environmental impact assertion , a wholesale regulative document that examine the environmental impact of the proposed natural action , regarding Starship launch from that pad .
The Federal Aviation Administration is preparing a disjoined wallop statement for SpaceX ’s spaceship launching plans at Kennedy Space Center ’s pad 39A. Both studies are meant to study the environmental impacts of Starship launches and landing operations , which will involve the Super Heavy booster returning to the launch site , similar to how SpaceX ’s Falcon rocket operate .
The Space Force ’s environmental impact statement for SLC-37 is also considering an choice — having SpaceX manufacture an entirely Modern launch pad currently designated SLC-50 . Either way , there would in all probability be important construction , including deluge ponds , fuel tanks , a catch tower — and then upwards of 120 launch per year from both website combined .
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The two Florida launch domiciliation would bring together an existing Starship launching pillar at SpaceX ’s Starbase launch facility in southeast Texas , as well as a second towboat that ’s presently under construction at the same fix . In the near future tense , SpaceX could have four functional spaceship launching sites .
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has unbelievably challenging design for Starship , which he sees as a primal enabler for colonizing Mars and “ expanding the light of cognisance ” through the creation . He eventually wants to set up Starship multiple times per solar day , with each launch deliver hundreds of rafts of cargo to low Earth orbit or beyond . The company has a separate goal of grouse up its spaceship fabricate adeptness to enable develop one Starship second phase per day .
Blue Origin, ULA push back
“ Just one Starship launch land site is likely to disrupt other launching operation in the arena and cause significant environmental impacts , as discussed in detail below . The impact are certain to be amplify if coming from two launch sites in such close proximity,”ULA said in its comment .
“ For example , SpaceX mean to conduct up to 44 launches per year from LC-39A. If SpaceX aims for a like number at SLC-37 , that would lead to closely 100 launch per year — or one every three days or so , ” the comment continued .
Blue Origin , which take aim to found its New Glenn rocket from LC-36 at the Cape Canaveral situation , nominate a telephone number of mitigate factorsthat made it unmortgaged it views the launch operations across both sites as a zero - sum game . Those included a suggestion to ask SpaceX ( or the government ) to indemnify third parties for passing cause by Starship mathematical operation — including commercial perturbation .
