SpaceX plans to regularly launch its monster Starship booster from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and to do so it will refurbish an Apollo-era launch site and also construct a new one, according to a new environmental impact statement.
The Starship booster has been in the news off and on in recent years – not the least for the fiery end of its first two attempts to reach orbit. However, if familiarity breeds contempt, it also tends to kill a sense of scale. SpaceX's new flagship rocket isn't just a display of new technology or cool retro lines; it is an absolute monster of a space vehicle.
To put it directly, Starship is the largest, most powerful rocket ever to fly. The fully stacked first and second stages stand 394 ft (120 m) where the Apollo Saturn V that sent the first astronauts to the Moon is only 363 ft (111 m). Moreover, Starship's 33 Raptor engines punch out over 16 million pounds of thrust, or twice that of the Saturn V.
It even towers over NASA's Space Launch System (SLS), which stands at 371 ft (114 m) and still has twice the thrust. As to payload, Starship can put 150 tonnes into orbit with both stages returning to Earth for reuse. The SLS can only handle 95 tonnes in its current configuration and is a one-and-done booster.
Another difference is that Starship is designed for frequent, repeated flights, where the SLS only flies once every two years or so. Imagine a replay of the Apollo 11 liftoff every couple of weeks and it explains why SpaceX is keen on basing it, at least in part, at Kennedy.
When SpaceX made its first orbital launch attempt from the company's facility in Texas, the effect on the ground was spectacular and more than a bit destructive. SpaceX engineers had under-designed the launch pad to a frightening degree.
The launch pads for the Saturn V were massive affairs with heavy concrete structures, steel blast channels, and systems to flood everything with gigantic sprays of water to protect them from the five massive F1 engines. Starship's was pretty basic, which resulted in slabs of concrete being torn up, wildfires ignited, cars demolished far from the pad, and a huge cloud of dust. So much debris flew into the air that there were environmental concerns and the US FAA took a very stern line regarding improvements to the launch facilities as well as the design of Starship. The result was a second flight where, though both stages of the rocket exploded, the launch pad survived more or less intact.
According to the environmental impact statement filed by the US Space Force, it proposes to take over Space Launch Complex 37 (SLC-37), which was built in 1959 and was used for testing the early Apollo boosters, as well as acting as the launch site for the uncrewed Apollo 5 mission. It's currently being used by United Launch Alliance to operate its Delta 4 Heavy rocket, which will be retired later this year in favor of the Vulcan. SLC-37 will be partly demolished and rebuilt to handle Starship.
The statement also says that another complex, called SLC-50, can be constructed nearby for the same purpose as an alternative. Since this is a routine filing under the National Environmental Policy Act, not many details about the project have been released, but the filing by the Space Force highlights the military interest in Starship. In recent years, the US Air Force and the Space Force have been looking at Starship as a possible military transport for cargo and troops that could reach anywhere in the world in under an hour. There have also been suggestions that the Space Force wants to purchase or lease Starship rockets that it would operate without SpaceX participation.
Whatever the details, the securing and construction of such massive launch complexes demonstrates that the future of commercial launches will be very different from those of the Space Race. Instead of only a couple of launches per year, we could see Super Heavy rockets lifting off on the tails of an incredibly powerful and destructive thrust as a matter of what will be as routine as a jetliner taking off.
Source: US Space Force
