Remember the first time you saw a SpaceX rocket nail a bullseye landing after hurtling back from space? How about the first time two boosters landed side-by-side, punctuating the inaugural launch of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket with thrilling synchrony?
Some of SpaceX's most defining moments happened on a piece of beachfront property at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. This is where SpaceX first landed a reusable Falcon 9 booster coming back from space and, a few years later, landed two boosters side-by-side.
In all, SpaceX has landed 66 Falcon boosters at Landing Zones 1 and 2 since recovering the first Falcon 9 booster on December 21, 2015. Now, SpaceX is preparing to hand the landing zones back to the US Space Force, which owns the property and has reallocated the real estate to two startup launch companies.
SpaceX plans to build two landing zones for Falcon rockets next to the company's existing launch pads in Florida, aligning with a recent Space Force policy to co-locate launch and landing sites on the same property.
The Space Force says co-located launch and landing pads will free up room for the spaceport to host more launch companies and shrink the area around the base that safety authorities must evacuate for each mission. Ultimately, this will reduce interruptions and scheduling conflicts between SpaceX and other launch providers at the Cape Canaveral spaceport.
Staying power
The Federal Aviation Administration issued a record of decision Wednesday approving SpaceX's plan to more than double the number of Falcon 9 launches from Space Launch Complex-40 (SLC-40), the busiest of the company's four operational launch pads. The FAA concluded that the proposed launch rate "would not significantly impact the quality of the human environment."
The environmental review paves the way for SpaceX to launch up to 120 Falcon 9 rockets per year from SLC-40, an increase from 50 launches covered in a previous FAA review in 2020. Since then, the FAA has issued SpaceX temporary approval to go beyond 50 launches from SLC-40. For example, SpaceX launched 62 of its overall 132 Falcon 9 flights last year from SLC-40.