Camden County, GA; another potential Commercial Spaceport

[TrevorLahey]

 

Camden County residents could see the first ever launch from a local spaceport as soon as 2018.

But that's only if the community can stay focused on the process of bringing a spaceport to the area, according to county administrator Steve Howard.

The idea that two years ago seemed outlandish to some is quickly gaining momentum as Howard and other county leaders work toward a purchase agreement with the two landowners who currently hold the proposed 11,000-acre site at the east end of Harrietts Bluff Road. The land has already served as the site of the Thiokol chemical corporation and, most recently, of Bayer CropScience.

On Tuesday morning, Howard and Georgia Tech professor and space expert Dr. Robert Braun addressed the Camden Roundtable, a non-partisan citizens group dedicated to furthering community discussion and participation.

Braun said Georgia could leverage the skills of its already-thriving aeronautics industry to aid the setup of a spaceport in Camden.

"I actually think the Camden County spaceport is the turning point to allow us to do that," he said. "What we're really good at is aeronautics - airplanes."

Braun also gave a brief overview of the current state of the commercial space industry and described the types of missions that could potentially launch from Camden. He also talked about why the county is such a prime location for such an endeavor.

The new space race

The use of space to benefit society has increased drastically in the last 50 years, Braun said, citing satellite television and GPS as the most common examples.

"Space today is a several hundred billion dollar per year market," he said.

Satellites also allow scientists and private companies to monitor and map the Earth, and thus are being launched routinely from a number of U.S. and international spaceports. Georgia's aeronautics industry and Camden's location relatively close to the equator - where the force of the Earth's rotation provides free velocity for spacecraft to use when launching - makes the state one of the top five candidates in the nation for the space industry.

And with the federal government discontinuing the space shuttle program and planning to bring down the international space station in the 2020s, a number of private companies are looking to "seize that market," Braun said. Some of the companies currently service the space station while others build, launch and maintain satellites. There is even interest in building a hotel in space, Braun said, which elicited chuckles Tuesday from a few in the audience.

"You laugh, but there are companies that are looking at doing this," he said. "The space race used to be between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. With the retirement of the space shuttle ... that created a new space race."

Other advantages for Camden include its available trajectories over the Atlantic Ocean, which allow spacecraft to launch without having to fly over a significant population of people.

Another burgeoning site in Brownsville, Texas, has a similar advantage, but launches from that site must "thread the needle," Braun said, between the southern tip of Florida and Cuba, which complicates some missions.

According to a recent article on space.com, private spaceflight company SpaceX broke ground on the Brownsville site Sept. 22 at Boca Chica Beach. The facility should be operational by 2016, according to the article.

But since Brownsville had more environmental challenges to overcome and still received a favorable rating on its Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) - an 18-month study with public input that Camden will also have to undergo - Howard said county leaders feel Camden's chances of securing permits for a spaceport are favorable.

And though rumors have been swirling locally that Camden is competing with Brownsville, Braun said private space operators often want more than one location because each site could be limited in the number of launches allowed annually.

 

More details @ http://tribune-georgian.com/view/full_story_free/25909619/article-Camden-spaceport-could-be--turning-point--for-Ga-?instance=viewed

[DocM]

The Camden County site would be perfect for SpaceX's BFR super-heavy launcher. Their Brownsville TX site should be done around 2016 and before then they'll have to be planning for BFR's home, and that site will have to be remote.

It could also be a good location for Blue Origin. Their methane powered launcher would also best be served by a commercial pad away from the KSC downsides that drove SpaceX's commercial launches to Texas: working around the security checks of a USAF base, launch schedule conflicts with govt. launches etc.

Here's a map to illustrate where the new facility would be

[TrevorLahey]

I always thought that BFR would be launched in Brownsville also.

[DocM]

A major BFR launch campaign to Mars would need more than one launch complex.

The problem with BFR launching from Launch Site Texas is acoustics.

The clearance around a super-heavy launcher like Saturn V is over 3 miles. BFR could need 10 miles or more of acoustic clearance. The city of Brownsville is only 8 miles from the pad area, and the hotels on South Padre Island are less than 4 miles. Ain't gonna work.

There is another option that could still place a BFR complex in Texas: control the launches from the Brownsville Mars Crossing site, tracking with STARGATE, but place the pad further north in the great emptyness between Brownsville and Corpus Christi.

[flyingskippy]

Doc see messenger.

[macrosslover]

I don't see the Navy approving something of this type, this close to their nuclear submarine base.  What's the guarantee that if they abort a launch or have a launch failure, one of the rockets doesn't end up "accidently" flying into the submarine base?

[DocM]

The flight termination system (FTS)

The FTS is a long linear shaped explosive charge along the propellant tanks, and a trigger which is a separate and separately powered system. The launchers systems can go to hell and still not kill the FTS.

In newer US rockets it locates the launcher in 3D space using MilSpec GPS, laser gyros, and inertial systems. This is replacing the old methods of radar and optical tracking with grease pen lines on the launch control room displays (seriously!)

If the launcher deviates the charge is automatically triggered. No human needed, but there's a manual "red button" anyhow. Once FTS triggers the explosive unzips the tanks and ignites the propellants, burning them off above ground.

The aerodynamic forces then shred the launcher, 90-95% of which is a thin aluminum-lithium alloy. Some tanks have been no thicker than a vegetable or Pepsi can (John Glenn's Atlas.)

The vertical line between the right side landing legs is the FTS charge on this Falcon 9 first stage,

This is SpaceX's FTS working when the F9R Dev-1 landing test vehicle suffered a sensor failure that caused it to veer off course. This vehicle didn't use explosives (it used experimental dump valves) but the effect is the same.

http://youtu.be/lnqjnxfjgUk

[DocM]

12/15/2016 - Georga Senate Study Committee Recommends Spaceflight Legislation

At a meeting in Atlanta this morning, the Senate Study Committee on the Camden County Spaceport finalized its recommendations to the General Assembly on the challenges and opportunities related to a spaceport in Georgia.  The principle finding of the Study Committee urges the Georgia General Assembly to propose and pass legislation that sends a clear signal to the commercial space community that Georgia is open for business.

"To paraphrase Neil Armstrong, this report is one small step for Spaceport Camden, but one giant leap for Georgia," stated Spaceport Project Lead and Camden County Administrator, Steve Howard. "There is still plenty of work to do before rockets launch from Camden County, but we look forward to working with the General Assembly to make Georgia the best place in the country for aerospace entrepreneurs to do business."

Camden County continues to work through the Federal Aviation Administrations Office of Commercial Space Transportation to obtain a launch site operators license.  Environmental and safety reviews are in process and a decision by the FAA is expected in 2017.

[PGHammer]

On 10/9/2014 at 10:33 PM, macrosslover said:

I don't see the Navy approving something of this type, this close to their nuclear submarine base.  What's the guarantee that if they abort a launch or have a launch failure, one of the rockets doesn't end up "accidently" flying into the submarine base?

That depends on what is done with other existing Navy submarine bases; it's not as if Kings Bay is irreplaceable.  (For example, is Kings Bay used by attack subs at all?  As far as I am aware, Kings Bay is SSBN-specific - which is problematical in and of ltself.  If it is, Kings Bay could well be chopped off at the knees, with the subs disbursed to other bases - such as Norfolk, VA and Miami, FL.  (Norfolk hosts both SSBNs and SSNs today - and has for decades; Miami is SSN-specific as far as I am aware; however, it is actually understrength in terms of SSNs assigned there.)  Jimmy Carter may not be enough to save Kings Bay.