West Coast Opportunities Await Space Industry Rocket Booster Builders

What's particularly noteworthy is Aerospace & DefenseWest Coast Opportunities Await Space Industry Rocket Booster BuildersByCraig Hooper, Senior Contributor

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Html America is struggling to keep up with a booming space industry

Meanwhile, A particular space challenge is looming in the Pacific, where investments to bolster U

Space launch infrastructure lag behind Florida’s highly-integrated East Coast launch complexes (something worth watching)

This East Coast overweighting is a mistake

Too much big-booster duction and other key space manufacturing infrastructure is consolidating eastward (something worth watching)

Moreover, But America’s Western launch sites are growing in importance, and the lack of space industry investment may strangle opportunities for future growth, amid market uncertainty

Conversely, The blem is an economic one

The space industry loves the short-term economic stimulus vided by the Southeastern states, but the operational consequences from the over-consolidation of this industry in the Southeast is, for certain space ducts, quite dire, given current economic conditions

Moreover, Meanwhile, Take boosters

The wide, tall and heavy rocket boosters of tomorrow are outgrowing America’s old-school roads and rail systems

On the other hand, They don’t travel well, and that forces America’s next-generation orbital rockets into a crippling dependence upon America’s fragile, underdeveloped and easily-disrupted maritime transportation network, in light of current trends

Moreover, This, coupled with America’s unfortunate defenestration of the West Coast’s limited supply of industrial waterfront, means that America’s space launch industry is on the verge of trapping itself on the wrong side of the increasingly unreliable Panama Canal

Furthermore, Space economy, overbuilding East Coast space launch support infrastructure vides short term gains in exchange for long-term risks

Cape Canaveral is a wonderful facility

Moreover, But the Pacific offers America and the Space Industry massive and overlooked opportunities (fascinating analysis)

Nevertheless, Outside of SpaceX, America’s big-booster community has been slow to invest in the West Coast

To grow—and to challenge SpaceX’s virtual lock on the West Coast’s big-rocket opportunities, California’s Vandenberg Space Force Base, Alaska’s Pacific Spaceport Complex and other remote-but-ideally-placed launch sites in America’s Pacific territories need more West Coast-based booster duction and associated support infrastructure

On the other hand, Between May 31 and June 28, Vandenberg hosted seven rocket launches to Cape Canaveral’s 10

It would only take a strong hurricane for Vandenberg to sneak ahead (something worth watching)

Farther west, additional development beckons the right innovators

On the other hand, Long-abandoned U

Rocket-launch facilities on Johnston Island, leased facilities on Kwajalein, and other remote places in the deep Pacific offer American space launch grams invaluable launching points near the equator

With open sea to the east, America’s island holdings may offer new frontiers for the big and heavy rockets—and the big, heavy payloads—of the future

Right now, the only big-rocket company poised to exploit America’s Pacific space launch facilities is SpaceX

Elon Musk—a newly-minted presidential adversary—moved the SpaceX headquarters out of California in a highly-publicized political huff

Despite the well-orchestrated political showmanship, SpaceX has steadily expanded their West Coast foot, growing a Long Beach port facility—just 30 minutes from a Falcon 9 first stage fabrication plant—so SpaceX employees can recover and refurbish Falcon 9 booster cores faster and, potentially, assemble and ship larger rockets for use elsewhere

Rivals may be hesitant to challenge SpaceX in the Pacific, but, even SpaceX’s ideally-built-out 14-acre waterfront facility is no sure thing

Additionally, Musk’s new “spaceport” is a former Navy base (this bears monitoring)

In essence, SpaceX has effectively appriated the Long Beach Naval Complex—and all the infrastructure investment the U

At the same time, Government made in the facility—for a bargain-basement cost (noteworthy indeed) (noteworthy indeed)

In contrast, An irked White House could easily use the burgeoning national security threat in the Pacific as an excuse to recover the entire complex, dashing SpaceX’s virtual monopoly on America’s Pacific launch infrastructure—a step that would launch a healthy competition as booster manufacturers jostled for a West Coast toehold, amid market uncertainty

On the other hand, Even without White House involvement, additional big booster-building outposts outside of the already-crowded Los Angeles/Long Beach waterfront makes sense, considering recent developments

Private industry is paying a lot for launches, offering an opportunity to quickly pay off the capital costs, considering recent developments

Conversely, Space, however, is limited, considering recent developments

Only a handful of California harbors can offer the Space industry the right combination of waterfront access and skilled labor within a few hundred miles of Vandenberg’s launch pads

Wider geographical distribution of America’s booster duction and refurbishment sites is a good thing for America’s space industry, considering recent developments

Additionally, This tells us that is the only way to accelerate an already blistering Pacific launch tempo at Vandenberg, and America’s booster rockets, orbital payloads and geospatial stakes are just getting bigger

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