![\"Cape](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/5156a.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and neighboring Kennedy Space Center hosted 109 launches in 2025, a record. (credit: Airman 1st Class Samuel Becker)<\/p>\n
by Jeff Foust
Monday, February 9, 2026<\/p>\n
\nAround 2018, the Air Force\u2019s 45th Space Wing announced an initiative dubbed \u201cDrive for 48\u201d intended to support an increased launch rate at the Eastern Range, which includes the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The goal, as the name suggested, was to support 48 launches a year: one per week, with two two-week maintenance periods. It was an audacious goal at a time when the range was hosting only a couple launches a month. The initiative took on an auto racing theme, including an illustration of a stock car emblazoned with the number 48.\n<\/p>\n
When we\u2019re looking at the analysis out there, in 2035, we\u2019re seeing numbers upwards of 500 launches a year off the Space Coast,\u201d said Chatman.<\/p>\n
\nIn 2025, the Eastern Range lapped the field. There were 109 launches from KSC and the rechristened Cape Canaveral Space Force Station that year, more than double a goal that seven years earlier seemed difficult to achieve. That was largely achieved by SpaceX, which accounted for 101 of those launches with its workhorse Falcon 9, with Atlas 5, New Glenn, and Vulcan accounting for the rest.\n<\/p>\n
\nNot long ago, that launch rate would have been considered impossible from the Space Coast: too much demand on spaceport infrastructure. But the leadership of the Eastern Range expects launch activity to continue to grow.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWhen we\u2019re looking at the analysis out there, in 2035, we\u2019re seeing numbers upwards of 500 launches a year off the Space Coast,\u201d said Col. Brian Chatman, commander of Space Launch Delta 45, the Space Force successor to the 45th Space Wing, during a panel discussion at the Space Mobility conference in Orlando January 27.\n<\/p>\n
\nHe said nearly $1 billion is going into spaceport infrastructure development at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station through the \u201cSpaceport of the Future\u201d initiative. The goal is to be able to accommodate that 500 or more launches a year as soon as 2030.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe\u2019re redoing the landscape from a launch base perspective to maximize efficiency out at the range, to maximize throughput,\u201d he said, \u201cto help partner with the launch service providers to meet the number of launches, the cadence they anticipate in the future.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nThe same is true at the other major American spaceport, Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. Once a relatively quiet launch site, there were 71 launches there in 2025, a figure that includes both orbital launches and suborbital missile tests. Like the Eastern Range, the vast majority of those launches were by SpaceX: the only orbital launch attempt from Vandenberg last year not performed by SpaceX was a Firefly Alpha launch that failed to reach orbit.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cA busy year at Vandenberg,\u201d recalled Col. Jim Horne, commander of Space Launch Delta 30, which oversees the Western Range, \u201cused to be nine, ten launches a year.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nSpeaking at the Space Mobility panel, he said Vandenberg now was where Cape Canaveral was two years ago. \u201cA lot of the lessons we\u2019ve learned from SLD 45 as they leaned into the capacity surge are really starting to pay off.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nLike the Cape, the Vandenberg is investing in infrastructure improvements to the tune of more than $800 million over five years. Much of that is going towards \u201cretiring tech debt\u201d that has accumulated over the years there. \u201cWe\u2019re essentially modernizing the infrastructure we built in the first space race to get ready for the second space race.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe anticipate upwards of 150 to 200 launches over the next couple of years,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we\u2019re pretty close to getting there.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a provider that the way they get into our harbor is that they hired a surfer. He stands on the edge of the barge. He waits for the tides to optimize and says, \u201cReady, ready, go!\u2019 And then the boat harbor guy guns it and they ride the wave into the harbor,\u201d Horne said.<\/p>\n
\nTraditionally, the focus on spaceport infrastructure has been on the launch pads themselves, and there have been recent efforts to create new launch facilities. Last fall, the Department of the Air Force approved plans by SpaceX to convert the Cape\u2019s Space Launch Complex 37, a former Delta 4 pad, into a Starship launch facility with two pads.\n<\/p>\n
\nAt the end of January, the FAA approved Starship launches from a pad under construction at KSC\u2019s Launch Complex 39A, allowing up to 44 launches a year along with 44 landings each of the Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage. SpaceX plans to use LC-39A almost exclusively for Falcon Heavy and Starship launches, with Falcon 9 launches, including crewed missions, flying from nearby SLC-40.\n<\/p>\n
\nIn December, Vandenberg issued a request for information about potential uses of Space Launch Complex 14, an undeveloped site on the south side of the base that the Space Force would like to offer to an operator of a heavy-lift or superheavy-lift launch vehicle, like Starship or New Glenn. At the same time, the Eastern Range is considering redeveloping Space Launch Complex 46, a rarely used pad, for large vehicles as well.\n<\/p>\n
\nBut the bottlenecks to that projected launch growth are not the launch sites themselves. On the panel, both Chatman and Horne discussed challenges ranging from roads to pipelines that pose the biggest potential challenges to growth.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cToday I\u2019ve got one main artery to drive on and off Cape Canaveral Space Force Station,\u201d said Chatman. \u201cI need a booster transport lane. I need the ability to deconflict how men and women get to work day-to-day from how we transport upper stages and boosters back over to the processing facilities.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nAnother issue, he said, is propellants. Methane is increasingly used by launch vehicles: New Glenn and Vulcan now, with Starship to follow. Right now, methane is brought to the launch sites by truck. \u201cThat\u2019s thousands of trucks coming through my vehicle inspection stations each and every day,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThings like a methane pipeline are things we didn\u2019t account for two years ago when we laid in requirements for Spaceport of the Future,\u201d he said, adding that he was working with Space Florida, the state\u2019s space economic development agency, to help fund infrastructure upgrades like a pipeline.\n<\/p>\n
\nHorne raised similar concerns about truck traffic at Vandenberg. \u201cIn the past we\u2019ve said each to his own\u201d about getting commodities to their pads,\u201d he said. That truck traffic for bringing in those commodities affects roads as well as traffic on the base.\n<\/p>\n
\nThen there\u2019s the issue of Vandenberg\u2019s modest harbor. \u201cThere is a provider that the way they get into our harbor is that they hired a surfer. He stands on the edge of the barge. He waits for the tides to optimize and says, \u201cReady, ready, go!\u2019 And then the boat harbor guy guns it and they ride the wave into the harbor,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
\nImproving the harbor is a priority, he said, with the goal of making it available 90% of the time versus 30% now. \u201cWe have to invest in our harbor in a way that makes it like any other normal port and opens up capacity,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
![\"Vandneberg\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/5156b.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
A Falcon 9 lifts off from Vandenberg Space Force Base in 2024. (credit: Airman 1st Class Olga Houtsma)<\/p>\n
Other spaceports<\/p>\n
\nIn 2025, the Eastern and Western Ranges accounted for all but one orbital launch from the United States. The exception was a single Rocket Lab Electron launch from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Virginia. (Other sites hosted suborbital launches, such as New Shepard missions from Blue Origin\u2019s West Texas facility and Starship test flights from Starbase in Texas.)\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIf there was a launch and something were to go wrong, we\u2019re fortunate that all the folks underneath us are, probably, cows,\u201d said Spaceport America\u2019s Pallares.<\/p>\n
\nThe perceived congestion at the Cape seemed to be an opportunity for other spaceports to attract customers. Rocket Lab decided to set up operations at Wallops for Electron and, soon, Neutron, avoiding the Cape, while Northrop Grumman has used that site for Antares launches. Northrop\u2019s partnership with Firefly Aerospace will allow for Alpha and Eclipse launches from there.\n<\/p>\n
\nBut there are still far more spaceports than demand. The day before Space Mobility, the Global Spaceport Alliance gathered in the same convention center for its annual Spaceport Summit, attracting a record audience despite a winter storm that kept some people away.\n<\/p>\n
\nDozens of spaceports, most from the United States but some from Australia, Europe, Japan and Latin America, attended. Most of the spaceports had one thing in common: they had yet to host a launch.\n<\/p>\n
\nOne reason why is that many of the facilities are located inland, ruling out orbital launches\u2014at least in the US\u2014under current regulations. Some hope to be able to change that.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cI think the biggest value proposition for inland spaceports is being able to hold schedule,\u201d said Francisco Pallares, director of business development for Spaceport America in New Mexico, during one conference panel. That facility, best known for hosting Virgin Galactic suborbital launches, has shown an interest in supporting orbital launches.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe lack of congestion today at inland launch sites, he argued, could provide customers with the schedule assurance that is harder to come by at major launch sites today. \u201cThey need the certainty that they will be able to launch.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nThe maturation of launch vehicles starts to make inland orbital launch an option at some sites, like Spaceport America. \u201cThe companies can more easily approach this accuracy that is so necessary,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
\nSpaceport America has 18,000 acres of land that is surrounded by much larger territory owned by the state of New Mexico and the Bureau of Land Management, as well as nearby White Sands Missile Range.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIf there was a launch and something were to go wrong, we\u2019re fortunate that all the folks underneath us are, probably, cows,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n
\nAnother panelist advocated for the opposite of inland launch: offshore launches from floating platforms. \u201cA misconception that is associated with sea launch is that sea launch has to be very costly,\u201d said Michael Anderson, CEO of Seagate Space, which is developing ships that can serve as mobile launch platforms.\n<\/p>\n
\nThat perception is rooted in the experience from Sea Launch, the multinational venture that, in the 1990s, converted an oil rig into a launch platform the Zenit-3SL rocket, along with a large ship that accompanies it to launches on the Equator in the Pacific Ocean.\n<\/p>\n
\nThe model he envisions is what China is doing today with barges that host launches of smaller vehicles, taking place not far offshore from Chinese cities. Seagate, he said, is working on a \u201cvery cost-efficient asset that actually provides more capability than attempts to retrofit assets built for a totally different purpose.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is availability at the major spaceports in the United States that is the \u2018easy button,\u2019\u201d said Hoffman<\/p>\n
\nOne advantage of ocean launch, he said, is there is no need to acquire large amounts of land for a launch site. The average launch pad, he said, requires about 1,000 acres of land; one for Starship might eventually support daily launches putting 100 to 150 tons each into orbit. He contrasted that to the Port of Miami, which covers 500 acres but handles 25,000 tons of cargo a day.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cSpace has a space problem,\u201d he concluded.\n<\/p>\n
\nThere are few signs, though, of a shift towards inland or ocean spaceports. \u201cThere is availability at the major spaceports in the United States that is the \u2018easy button,\u2019\u201d said Eric Hoffman, a vice president at Booz Allen, during another panel at the spaceport summit. Companies can leverage government infrastructure at the Cape and Vandenberg. \u201cIt\u2019s just easier.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThe SpaceX\u2019s and Blue Origin\u2019s of the world have made their investments in those facilities,\u201d said Mike Kuchler, senior manager at Deloitte. \u201cYou can\u2019t recreate superheavy launch at a state or local spaceport and reach the same economies of scale.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\nBoth Hoffman and Kuchler urged new spaceports to find other niches rather than try to serve the same customers that the Cape and Vandenberg are supporting. One example they gave was Oklahoma\u2019s announcement last year it would bring in Dawn Aerospace\u2019s Aurora Mark 2 suborbital spaceplane to the state\u2019s spaceport, a former air force base in Burns Flat. That vehicle is expected to start flying from that spaceport next year.\n<\/p>\n
\n\u201cFor the other, newer spaceports, you have to focus on something that is a niche that isn\u2019t necessarily being serviced,\u201d Hoffman said.\n<\/p>\n
\nProponents of other spaceports have tried to make other arguments for diversifying launch beyond the Cape and Vandenberg, such as the risk those sites could be taken offline by a natural disaster or an attack. So far, those arguments have not been convincing. As long as the Eastern and Western Ranges remain the \u201ceasy button\u201d for launch companies and can accommodate continued growth, other spaceports in the US will need to find another lane to race in.\n<\/p>\n