Mon, Feb 01, 2010
The Navy's former Master Jet Base in Jacksonville, Florida, has
received a Launch Site Operators License from the FAA, making it
the nation's 8th designated horizontal launch commercial
spaceport. As part of receiving a license to operate a
spaceport, the JAA and FAA conducted an extensive environmental
study and a comprehensive application process.
The Jacksonville Airport Authority has been working for four
years on the spaceport designation for Cecil Field. It is the first
license for horizontal space operations granted in the state of
Florida. Cecil was closed by the Navy during the 1993 BRAC round,
and was officially handed back to the City of Jacksonville in
1999.
With a 12,500-foot main runway, the third longest in Florida,
Cecil Field (KVQQ) can readily accommodate the horizontal launches
specified in the license. "Cecil Field has come a long way in the
past ten years. This property which was once a Naval Air Station
continues to be reused and redeveloped in innovative ways," said
JAA Board Chairman Deborah Pass-Durham. "We're hopeful this
commercial spaceport license will help take Cecil Field to the next
level in attracting new business, especially within the space
industry."
Commercial spaceports can be used for suborbital space tourism,
travel and cargo operations and other commercial launch activities.
The best-known player in the commercial space industry is Virgin
Galactic, Sir Richard Branson's company. Virgin Galactic is based
at New Mexico's Spaceport America. Another is Oklahoma City-based
Rocketplane Global Inc. That company's CEO, George French, has
visited Cecil Field.
"With Cecil Field being named one of only eight licensed
commercial spaceports in the country, Jacksonville is breaking into
yet another aviation industry with commercial space transport,"
said JAA Executive Director and CEO Steve Grossman. "Cecil Commerce
Center offers Jacksonville and our region an industrial complex
unlike any other in the state, and the addition of commercial space
transport will greatly contribute to economic development and job
growth in Jacksonville."
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