Space Florida Eyes More Launches as Agency Receives $48 Million DOD Contract

The first Minotaur IV Lite launch vehicle roars into the skies above California carrying DARPA's Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2 on April 22, 2010. (U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class Andrew Lee)

Florida will be able to compete with spaceports across the country to launch satellites aboard ICBMs that will be decommissioned under the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) between the United States and Russia. The Department of Defense has also given a $48 million contract to Space Florida to support Minotaur launches from Cape Canaveral.

Pat McCarthy, Space Florida’s Director of Spaceport Operations, said that the DOD has agreed to designate Cape Canaveral as one of the sites where converted ICBMs can be launched. Other sites include: Vandenberg AFB, California; Wallops Flight Facility, Virginia; Kodiak Launch Complex, Alaska; and the Reagan Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll in the U.S. Marshall Islands.

McCarthy writes on the Space Florida blog:

Our work to inform the Department of Defense of the benefit of designating the Cape as a “space launch facility” has also paid off. The Department of Defense agreed, through SDTW’s pre-qualification as part of Spaceports 3, the Cape should receive consideration as a space launch facility. We will now work with the USAF 45^th Space Wing and the USN’s Naval Ordnance Test Unit (NOTU) here at the Cape to get Complex 46 officially designated as a “space launch facility” under New START.

Additionally, we recently learned that the Space Development & Test Wing will award us an Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity contract to develop a Minotaur Logistics Strategy Plan. This is the first step toward supporting the Minotaur program at the Cape under SDTW’s Spaceports 3 contract. Other boosters that have ICBM-derived components, like Taurus I, can follow and use a similar logistics scheme as the one we develop for the Minotaur program. New rockets equal new business for Florida.

Space Florida will continue our work with the manufacturers of the Trident II, Minotaur, and Taurus I boosters— and their prospective government payload customers— to make them aware of the benefits of launching from Florida. This will make Florida facilities more attractive and serve to increase the future number of launches of ICBM-derived boosters from the Cape…. in addition to all of the other markets that we are seeking to serve.

The Minotaur contract that McCarthy mentioned was recently announced on the Department of Defense website:

Space Florida, Kennedy Space Center, Fla., was awarded a $48,000,000 contract which will provide launch spaceport services for the Space Launch Division within the Space and Missile Systems Center/Space Development and Test Directorate.  At this time, no funds have been obligated.

McCarthy says that Space Florida wants to use the state-owned Space Launch Complex 46 for abort tests for NASA’s Orion spacecraft. The space agency has been leaning toward do these tests at White Sands in New Mexico.

Our preliminary analysis also showed the Cape and USAF Eastern Range could even support the Orion Abort Test Booster flights. The high-altitude abort test flights would fit well within Eastern Range capabilities, as would the lower altitude predecessor flights.

All-in-all, this could be very good news for the Space Coast, which is getting hit hard by the end of the space shuttle program this year. These programs will probably support fewer jobs, but it’s a good step forward. And it helps to justify Florida’s investment in refurbishing the SLC 46 facility for commercial and government launches.