Planetary Development

On June 1, 2013 the Florida Space Development Council hosted a talk by Dale Ketchem of Space Florida for a discussion about Space Florida’s efforts to secure the “Shiloh” Wildlife Refuge now owned by NASA for a new launch complex of two launch pads for the Commercial Space Industry such as SpaceX. Dale’s talk stated at 2pm with questions and answers along the way where the conclusion went to about 4pm. The talk began with some definitions about Space Florida and its interests to keep launching facilities and commercial space enterprises in the state of Florida rather than moving to Texas or other venues. Dale noted throughout the talk the advantages in launching trajectories to be had by staying in Florida in that launching from Shiloh a company would be able to launch in the Polar, or to the International Space Station and or Geosynchronous orbits alike, where in Texas Geosynchronous would be the only option available. Plus there would be an added advantage with focusing commercial space efforts on the Space Coast of Florida that not only would Vertical Launch capabilities be available but also Horizontal Launches could be attained through the use of the now open for availability of use the old Space Shuttle landing runway that is no longer being used.   

 

There was some discussion about the environmental impact to the Shiloh Wildlife Refuge but in the end the overall thought was that NASA after operating adjacent to wildlife preserves for some 50 years has learned how to manage a successful launch schedule while maintaining low environmental impact. In fact wildlife over the years has even thrived in those areas. It is hoped as Dale spoke on the issue that the handing over of the Shiloh Wildlife Refuge to the Department of Interior away from NASA could only help to alleviate environmental impact fears while under oversight by the FAA.