Florida approves expansion of spaceport territories
The Florida legislature has now approved two new locations in Florida where rocket launches can take place.
Governor Ron DeSantis signed off on a bill that, as of Monday, will add South Florida’s Homestead Air Reserve Base and the panhandle’s Tyndall Air Force Base to Florida’s growing spaceport territories.
The map to the right shows the spaceport locations within Florida. While the state government might now allow launches from these locations, it is unclear if either military facility is entertaining the idea.
Regardless, the Florida government is clearly intent on encouraging and attracting this new industry to its state.
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The Florida legislature has now approved two new locations in Florida where rocket launches can take place.
Governor Ron DeSantis signed off on a bill that, as of Monday, will add South Florida’s Homestead Air Reserve Base and the panhandle’s Tyndall Air Force Base to Florida’s growing spaceport territories.
The map to the right shows the spaceport locations within Florida. While the state government might now allow launches from these locations, it is unclear if either military facility is entertaining the idea.
Regardless, the Florida government is clearly intent on encouraging and attracting this new industry to its state.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
By letting rocket launches from those two bases it gives the federal government another reason to keep them open, just in case they were on a future list of bases to close.
I was stationed at Tyndall. I can’t imagine where they’d put the launch pads. The base is somewhat rectangular, split in half the long way by a highway. The beach side is housing. The land side is the airplane stuff (runways, hangers, etc…).
Wildly unrelated: I asked to be assigned to Japan or Germany. Apparently, they split the difference. I loved the beach there. It was a great place to be stationed.
It would seem Tyndall could only host higher inclination launches, at least in the near term.
Maybe after Starship/Super Heavy gets reliable enough, they can entertain the idea of overflying land. I guess if giant jetliners filled with hundreds of tons of fuel regularly fly over densely populated cities, eventually SS can eventually do it also.
To Mark,
If Musk really wants frequent space launch—he needs to launch from Mobile Alabama where we have stainless steel plants and a river.
The LVs can follow the Florida peninsula on the Gulf side with less chop.
So they’d have to launch to the SE then. Is that practical?