WASHINGTON — A brand new environmental examine is meant to assist the continued improve of SpaceX launches from a California spaceport, however that progress faces potential obstacles.
A SpaceX Falcon 9 lifted off Dec. 28 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, deploying 22 Starlink satellites. That was the 46th and last orbital launch of the yr from Vandenberg, a cadence not seen from that facility for the reason that Nineteen Sixties.
The variety of launches from Vandenberg has elevated sharply in recent times from only a single orbital launch, of a Falcon 9, in 2020. That progress has been pushed by SpaceX, which accounted for each Vandenberg orbital launch in 2024 apart from one launch of Firefly Aerospace’s Alpha rocket in July.
An environmental examine getting underway would permit much more launches from Vandenberg. The Department of the Air Force introduced Dec. 13 it could perform an environmental affect assertion (EIS) overlaying each a rise in SpaceX launches at Vandenberg in addition to use of a second launch pad.
The EIS will study the environmental impacts from the redevelopment of Space Launch Complex (SLC) 6 to be used by SpaceX for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches. The Space Force awarded SpaceX entry to SLC-6, aka “Slick Six,” in 2023 after the ultimate launch of United Launch Alliance’s Delta 4 from the location.
SLC-6 was constructed within the Nineteen Sixties for the Air Force’s Manned Orbiting Laboratory program, which was canceled in 1969 earlier than any launches passed off. It was later transformed to assist Space Shuttle launches, however mothballed after the Challenger accident in 1986 earlier than internet hosting a single launch. ULA took over the location in 2006.
The EIS would additionally permit SpaceX to conduct as much as 100 launches yearly between SLC-6 and its present launch pad at Vandenberg, SLC-4. That consists of booster landings at each launch websites in addition to droneships downrange.
“The Proposed Action is required to satisfy present and near-term U.S. authorities house launch necessities from the DoD house launch vary that helps launches centered at VSFB (Western Range), particularly for medium and heavy-lift to polar, geostationary, and different orbits much less reliably obtainable elsewhere with out compromising present launch capabilities,” the Department of the Air Force acknowledged in a public discover in regards to the deliberate EIS on a devoted web site. “The Proposed Action can also be wanted to increase launch capability by returning heavy-lift launch functionality to the Western Range.”
The Department of the Air Force is planning three in-person public conferences Jan. 14 by 16 in Ventura, Santa Barbara and Lompoc, California, in addition to a web-based public assembly Jan. 23 to debate the deliberate EIS and obtain feedback on what must be included within the scope of the examine. Those feedback may also be submitted by Jan. 27.
The examine’s web site proposes an expedited schedule for finishing up the EIS, with a last model of the examine printed within the fall together with a file of choice of which choice the Department of the Air Force will pursue. The examine consists of two choices which can be equivalent anticipate for what hangar facility SpaceX would use at SLC-6, together with a “no motion” different. By distinction, a separate EIS by the Department of the Air Force for Starship launches from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida kicked off with scoping conferences in March, however will not be scheduled to conclude till the autumn.
Plans to additional improve launches from Vandenberg are more likely to face opposition from these involved in regards to the environmental impacts of these actions. In October, the California Coastal Commission voted to reject a “consistency dedication” from the Space Force looking for to extend the variety of Falcon 9 launches at Vandenberg from 36 to 50 per yr.
The rejection was largely a symbolic one, for the reason that fee doesn’t have unilateral authority to dam the rise in launches. The transfer attracted consideration, although, as a result of some commissioners stated they opposed the rise based mostly on unrelated feedback by Elon Musk, the corporate’s founder and chief government, in addition to considerations about SpaceX enterprise practices generally. That prompted a lawsuit by SpaceX in opposition to the fee, claiming that the state physique engaged in “bare political discrimination” in opposition to the corporate by voting in opposition to the consistency dedication.
Issues about Musk and SpaceX, although, took up solely a small a part of the fee’s debate. Some argued that SpaceX, and never the Space Force, must be looking for the rise in launches as a result of most of its launches from Vandenberg have been industrial launches and never for the federal government. There have been additionally considerations in regards to the improve in launches, with the fee concurring earlier within the yr with a rise to 36 launches and suggested on the listening to that one other improve to 100 launches could be proposed in early 2025.
Comments to the fee, from each environmental organizations and most people, raised environmental points in regards to the sharp improve in launches from Vandenberg. Some known as for holding off on a rise from 36 to 50 launches yearly till extra knowledge is collected on the environmental results of the latest improve to 36 launches. Others complained about sonic booms from launches and landings, apprehensive about potential harm to their houses or individuals “plain scared out of their minds,” as one particular person put it.
Those noise considerations made their method into the National Defense Authorization Act handed by Congress earlier this month. “The committee notes that the cadence of nationwide safety house launches is rising. While very important, the noise related to launch, significantly sonic booms, will be disruptive to close by communities,” the report accompanying the invoice acknowledged. “Facilities reminiscent of hospitals, daycares, colleges, senior-living amenities, and personal residences can all be impacted by noise disturbances.”
The report recommended that the Defense Department pursue a noise mitigation program modeled within the Community Noise Mitigation Program for plane, the place the division funds set up of noise-mitigating insulation in buildings and residences affected by noise from navy fixed-wing aviation operations.
The report language was inserted by Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee whose district consists of Vandenberg.
“Residents of the Central Coast in Lompoc and different communities close by Vandenberg have shared their rising considerations as elevated house launch cadence makes launch noise a bigger burden on their routines and high quality of life,” he stated in an announcement in regards to the noise provision. “This language makes it clear to the Department of Defense that these should not considerations they will plug their ears and ignore. Congress will take these impacts significantly.”
