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Cape Canaveral Sees Unprecedented Level Of Space Launches
Cape Canaveral
Rocket launches at Cape Canaveral, the largest spaceport in the US, have now surpassed the volume seen at the height of the Cold War.
Why It Flies: It’s space race 2.0, with China and India joining Russia in the competition. This time, it’s not just governments launching rockets into space, but a constellation of private startups expanding who can explore the final frontier. That’s creating some logistical challenges at Cape Canaveral.
Behind The Launches: A sliver of Florida coastline is the single most important piece of real estate for the growing space industry.
NASA is supercharging its launch schedule as the Artemis program heats up.
SpaceX and Blue Origin also have a huge footprint at Cape Canaveral and are ramping up missions to support their respective Starship and New Glenn rockets.
Additionally, startups Relativity Space and Stoke Space are putting down roots in the area, with plans to begin missions later this year or early next year.
Final Countdown: Axios reports that Space Launch Delta 45, the military unit overseeing Cape Canaveral, supported 109 launches from the base last year. Space Force Colonel Brian Chatman, the commander of the Cape, told Axios that “there’s nothing really comparable in the background of my career to what we’re experiencing today.” Meanwhile, America’s other space base, Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, had a record 71 launches last year.
Still, a combined 180 launches is far below the 1,000 annual launches President Trump is mandating by 2030. The Space Force says it’s up to the task, though, estimating it’ll reach “approximately 1,200 by 2036.” Insiders say the only way to hit that number is to build another base. Licensing Elon Musk’s planned Starbase in Louisiana will likely be NASA’s first move.
The Future: Don’t be surprised if a few space startups band together to build a smaller spaceport, the first designed specifically for passenger flights — potentially making it one of the hottest vacation destinations in the world.
Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.
