Partners unveil multi-use spaceport plan

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Oct. 29 (UPI) -- A unique partnership is fleshing out a 50-year plan to position the country's premier launch site to handle an expected surge in demand for space launch services, officials said Tuesday.

The Cape Canaveral Spaceport was born of a driving need for NASA and the military to cut costs for space launch operations, even while both were struggling to implement federal policy to assist the U.S. commercial launch service providers as well.

Building on the resources of NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the military's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, and the state of Florida's Space Authority, the partnership spent two years working on a master plan for what is being called the Cape Canaveral Spaceport. Details of the plan were unveiled Tuesday at the opening of a two-day symposium in Cape Canaveral.

In addition to a land-use blueprint, the master plan addresses economic development, technological initiatives and potential new markets that will be necessary to keep the United States competitive in a huge variety of space-related programs, ranging from NASA's science and human spaceflight projects, to the military's need for quick and reliable access to space for national security, to commercial firms' desires to serve existing and new industries, such as space tourism.

"A vision without resources can remain an illusion, but we also need a plan, a tool, a template for what a spaceport will be in the future," said Donald Pettit, a retired Air Force brigadier general and former commander of the military's 45th Space Wing, which oversees launch activities at the country's eastern range.

Looking for common ground, the Cape Canaveral Spaceport began modestly, by overseeing a contract for joint base support services at both the Kennedy Space Center and the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, a move that saved millions of dollars. Several other joint projects are pending.

In addition to making better use of people, hardware and facilities, the Spaceport master plan looks to the future, when as many as 250 payloads are expected to need rides to space, rather than the 20 to 25 launches that occur now, Pettit said.

Much of that growth is expected to take place in the hotly competed commercial launch services industry, which in the United States in dominated by Lockheed Martin and Boeing Co.

"We're going to be in this business for a long time and we're going to make money at it," said Will Trafton, Boeing's vice president and newly named general manager of Expendable Launch Systems. "But we're not going to do business at any cost on the commercial side."

More work is needed to make the Cape Canaveral Spaceport business-friendly, particularly when the customers -- as well as many of the equipment manufacturers -- are from other countries, added Lockheed's Adrian Laffitte, manager of the firm's Atlas rocket program.

"The way we treat foreign nationals is critical," Laffitte said.

Predictable range costs, consistent safety and security rules, and access to local subcontractors at the cape also are important to maintain U.S. competitiveness in a market that is becoming increasingly global, he added.