FAA issues environmental take on SpaceX request for more launches, new landing pad

ORLANDO, Fla. — If SpaceX gets its way, the Space Coast will get a lot more rocket rumbles and sonic booms as the company increases Falcon 9 launches and builds out new landing pads at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and Kennedy Space Center.

The Federal Aviation Administration released Friday a 116-page draft environment assessment for the first of those targeting Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 40, where SpaceX wants to increase launches from 50 to 120 per year.

The assessment looks to set up SpaceX to proceed with its plans, although the agency rejected a proposal to build yet another new landing pad at Canaveral because of environmental concerns.

The FAA has partnered with the Air Force, Coast Guard and NASA for the assessment, while NASA is the lead agency for a second assessment expected this spring for KSC’s Launch Complex 39-A, where SpaceX wants to increase launches from 20 to 36, including up to five of its larger Falcon Heavy rockets each year.

The construction of a pair of new landing sites on the Space Coast would solve the company’s reliance on two landing pads at Canaveral’s Launch Complex 13 it will soon lose access to. That space has been set aside by the federal Space Force as the future launch site for two other commercial launch providers — Phantom Space and Vaya Space — although neither have yet to get a rocket into space.

The Space Force’s goal is to have SpaceX and other launch providers maintain landing sites at the same place from which they launch. The Space Force does not intend to renew SpaceX’s license to land at LC 13 after it runs out this summer.

For Canaveral, the final design called for a single landing pad despite SpaceX proposals to build two.

The assessment declared those proposals as unacceptable because they were too detrimental to Florida scrub-jay and southeastern beach mouse habitat, overtook too much wetland, or were too much of a flight safety concern for the SpaceX hangar at the site.

The final proposal would be a 400-foot diameter pad and gravel apron while SpaceX would also build a new nitrogen gas line, a 30-foot pedestal for post-landing processing and an area for crane storage, adding about 10 acres of development to the site.

“The FAA has preliminarily concluded that the proposed action would not significantly affect the quality of the human environment,” the assessment said.

SpaceX wants to land up to 34 first-stage boosters at the site a year. SpaceX had 12 booster landings at Canaveral’s landing zones in 2024 and only six in 2023.

The Canaveral assessment touched on the forthcoming KSC assessment NASA is working on, evaluating a proposed landing zone for Falcon 9 boosters at Launch Complex 39-A. Both evaluations are required by the National Environmental Policy Act.

SpaceX is looking to have up to 20 boosters land back at KSC.

The combined 54 landings is actually the same upper limit in place now for the two existing landing zones.

The FAA said that KSC’s draft environmental assessment is expected this spring, but did note that launches from KSC would only land at KSC and launches from Canaveral would only land at Canaveral, which follows an updated policy from the Space Force as more commercial companies are expected to begin launching this decade.

SpaceX will still have to make droneship landings in the Atlantic.

These two SpaceX requests are separate from two other environmental evaluations underway by the FAA and the Air Force for potential launch and landing operations for its massive SpaceX Starship and Super Heavy rocket, which for now only launches from Texas.

As with all of the reviews, the FAA will still only issue licenses if other factors including safety, risk and financial responsibility are met.

For the Canaveral assessment, the FAA has a public comment period through April 24. A virtual public meeting will be held on April 16, for which people must register to join.

At the end of the public comment period, the FAA can either issue a “Finding of No Significant Impact,” known as a FONSI, or push forward with a more rigorous Environmental Impact Statement, which could mean a two-year delay before any construction.

The Air Force has already issued its finding that there is no significant impact, though, in a related document penned by Air Force Co. Marcia Quiqley, the director of Space Force Mission Sustainment.

She said the proposed action would not “result in individual or cumulatively significant impacts to any resources.”

That includes minor adverse impacts to air quality, climate, sound, cultural resources, water resources, biological resources, coastal resources, land use and socioeconomics, but SpaceX will be implementing “mitigation efforts” to limit their impact.

She said alternative sites were considered as well but would run afoul of the Space Force’s Assured Access to Space program needs, as SpaceX has a major stake in launch national security missions.

“I conclude that implementing the proposed action and the associate mitigation measures will not have a significant effect on the quality of the human environment,” she wrote. “Therefore, an Environmental Impact Statement is not required and this FONSI is appropriate.”