FAA Plays Santa to Camden County, Grinch to Island Homeowners with Controversial Georgia Spaceport License Award
by Douglas Messier
Managing Editor
Despite strong opposition from local residents worried about safety, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) awarded a spaceport license to the controversial Spaceport Camden project in Georgia on Monday. The decision will likely transform years of bitter public debate into years of bitter court battles over the project.
“In the 20th century Camden County was declared the ‘Gateway to Space.’ With this license, we have retained that title again in the 21st century,” Steve Howard, Camden County Administrator and Spaceport Camden executive project lead, said in a press release. “This once in a generation opportunity will provide a new frontier of economic prosperity for Camden, the region and the state of Georgia. Georgia is part of the new space race, and we will become one of the leaders.”
Spaceport Camden will be unique among U.S. vertical orbital launch complexes in that it won’t be located directly on the coast but rather inland. Small rockets launched from the Camden County-backed facility will travel over Cumberland and Little Cumberland islands, where there are private homes and a national seashore open to recreational visitors.
Spaceport Camden thus creates a twist on the not-in-my-backyard phenomenon in which local residents oppose a project because it’s built near them. In this case, they’re worried about debris literally crashing into their backyards — or worse.
FAA has said its analysis said that small satellite boosters can be launched safely from the spaceport without endangering residents or visitors to the Cumberland National Seashore. The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) disagrees.
“Virtually from the start, the FAA’s review of Spaceport Camden has been fraught with factual mistakes and legal errors. We will carefully review the FAA’s decision to ensure that it fully complies with all applicable laws,” SELC senior attorney Brian Gist said.
Camden County has not publicly identified which small satellite launcher might fly from the facility. However, the county’s press release included a quote from Phantom Space CEO Jim Cantrell, whose company is developing a booster in that class.
“Phantom Space is thrilled to see Spaceport Camden open for business. The additional launch capacity aligns well to our efforts to make access to space commonplace with reliable and responsive space transportation systems. Congratulations to Steve Howard and Camden County on this milestone achievement.,” Cantrell said.
Any booster operating from Spaceport Camden will need to obtain a separate FAA launch license.
2 responses to “FAA Plays Santa to Camden County, Grinch to Island Homeowners with Controversial Georgia Spaceport License Award”
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The FAA’s “representative rocket” for the Spaceport Camden environmental and safety analysis is fictional. Although the Final EIS says the rocket has performance characteristics equivalent to an Electron, Camden’s rocket has only 18,550 ft-lbs of thrust but must be launched near-vertically for the first 70 to 90 seconds to meet safety constraints caused by launching over homes and residents. The FAA says that is theoretically possible, but is it economically competitive? The rocket appears to be similar to an original Vector-R. Spaceport Camden hosted a demonstration launch in 2017 of a Vector amateur rocket that flew to 5,000 feet or so. That was Vector’s last launch before bankruptcy. Phantom has launched nothing. It’s quite telling that Jim Cantrell, Vector’s former head, is the only rocket company to speak on behalf of Spaceport Camden. A spaceport that has nothing to launch is championed by a rocketman who has nothing to launch.
One would think that a “spaceport with nothing to launch” being “championed by a rocket man with nothing to launch” is what the entitled swells dwelling in the middle of their bespoke wildlife refuge should be happy to have. But, as usual with such people, they have to have absolutely everything their way. Even the possibility of pesky proles someday launching rockets over their carefully connived little principality gives them all a case of the vapors. And now that the “public interest” law(fare) firm they brought in failed to produce a result to their liking, everyone on their side is indulging a fine case of the sulks.