Issues Record Of Decision Clearing The Way For South Texas Spaceport

The FAA has released a document indicating it has approved a SpaceX spaceport on the south Texas coast.

The 62-page document, called a "Record of Decision", states that it provides the FAA's final environmental determination and approval "to support the issuance of launch licenses and/or experimental permits that would allow Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) to launch the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy orbital vertical launch vehicles and a variety of reusable suborbital launch vehicles from a launch site on privately owned property in Cameron County, Texas. The Federal action identified in this ROD is the FAA’s issuance of launch licenses and/or experimental permits."

The approval allows  SpaceX to conduct up to 12 launches per year of the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy orbital vertical launch vehicles, and a variety of reusable suborbital launch vehicles, from an exclusive-use launch site on privately owned property in Cameron County, Texas. The site is in a sparsely populated coastal area on the Gulf of Mexico, approximately 3 miles north of the U.S./Mexico border.

Of the 12 yearly launches approved for the spaceport, only two could utilize the company's Falcon Heavy boosters. The total also includes any suborbital flights employing "reusable" rockets, which would seem to be a reference to the company's "Grasshopper" flights.

Approved commercial payloads include satellites, or experimental payloads, and may carry a capsule, such as the SpaceX Dragon capsule.

FMI: Record of Decision