14 DAY TRIAL // Hawthorne, California-based Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) may start building a private spaceport in Texas, according to an environmental review document produced by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The purpose of the document is to clear the way for the construction to proceed, if the company decides to start building its launch facilities in Texas. SpaceX has already expressed its interest in other sites as well, including some in Alaska, California, Virginia and Florida.
A while back, CEO Elon Musk told the media that he wants his company to build a commercial version of the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS), in Florida, which is where the SpaceX is conducting most of its operations from.
The FAA document indicates that the launch facility would feature pads for both the Falcon 9 medium-lift delivery system and the Falcon Heavy rocket. The latter is being developed in order to ferry larger payloads to Earth's orbit.
The installation would serve both orbital and suborbital flights, making it an excellent choice for contractors. It would be located close to Brownsville, “approximately 5 miles [8 km] south of Port Isabel and South Padre Island,” the FAA document explains.
The private site is located in Cameron County, southern Texas. If a launch facility is built here, then all rockets departing this installation would head east, over the Gulf of Mexico. This path would enable the Dragon spacecraft to reach the International Space Station.
“The proposed vertical launch area site is currently undeveloped and is located directly adjacent to the eastern terminus of Texas State Highway 4 (Boca Chica Boulevard) and approximately 3 miles [5 km] north of the Mexican border on the Gulf Coast,” the FAA adds in its document.
Under a $1.6 billion COTS agreement that SpaceX has with NASA, the company needs to launch 12 resupply flights to the orbital lab over the next few years. All these flights will be unmanned, but the company is already developing a manned version of the Dragon capsule.
“SpaceX is considering multiple potential locations around the country for a new commercial launch pad. The Brownsville area is one of the possibilities, but there is a long way to go before this could happen,” Space News quotes SpaceX spokeswoman, Kirstin Grantham, as saying.
The company already has launch facilities at the CCAFS and the Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB), in California. Additional installations are on the Kwajalein Atoll and McGregor, Texas.