{"id":59663,"date":"2025-11-25T02:28:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T02:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/59663\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T02:28:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T02:28:08","slug":"floridas-space-coast-to-see-increase-in-launch-activity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/59663\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida\u2019s Space Coast To See Increase in Launch Activity"},"content":{"rendered":"

BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Florida\u2019s Space Coast celebrated a major milestone last week with its 100th launch of the year \u2014 and even bigger growth is on the horizon. <\/p>\n

Officials say 100 to 115 launches are expected in 2026, but within a decade, the Eastern Range could support 300 to 350 launches annually. <\/p>\n

Col. Brian Chatman, Commander of Space Launch Delta 45 and Director of the Eastern Range, says the increase is driving the largest modernization effort at Cape Canaveral in decades. \u201cThe Department of the Air Force gave us a large chunk of money, an initial investment, to invest in what we call the Spaceport of the Future,\u201d Chatman said. \u201cIt\u2019s the largest infrastructure upgrade we\u2019ve done at the Cape in the last three decades.\u201d <\/p>\n

Upgrades currently underway aim to support larger launch capabilities, allowing more mass to reach orbit on heavy-lift vehicles \u2014 a shift that could reduce the total number of launches needed for certain missions. <\/p>\n

Col. Chatman said that preparations are also underway for future Starship operations. \u201cWe\u2019re working in partnership with Kennedy Space Center to build out launch complexes for Starship operations,\u201d he said. \u201cEarly to mid-next year is when we anticipate Starship coming out here to launch, and we\u2019ll have the range ready to support at that time.\u201d <\/p>\n

Even with the rapid progress, the push continues toward what range officials call \u201c100 and beyond.\u201d Chatman says every launch cycle provides data to help shape future capacity.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n

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\u00a92025 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Florida\u2019s Space Coast celebrated a major milestone last week with its 100th launch of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4117,36292,33752,36290,1060,2777,8496,36291,36293,36289,36287,1061,28,30,29,36294,36295,29901,634,36288,36297,115,36296,1769,30780,1435,1437,1045],"class_list":["post-59663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-brevard_county","tag-brian_chapman","tag-cape","tag-cape_canaver","tag-channel_9","tag-channel_nine","tag-coast","tag-colonel","tag-delta_45","tag-department_of_the_air_force","tag-eastern_range","tag-eyewitness","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-kennedy_space_center","tag-ksc","tag-launch","tag-local","tag-melanie_hall","tag-melanie_holtz","tag-news","tag-slick_39_alpha","tag-space","tag-space_coast","tag-spacex","tag-starship","tag-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}