![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/starship6pre1.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Fully stacked, the Starship rocket stands more than 400 feet tall.<\/p>\n
Credit:
\n SpaceX<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
SpaceX already has a \u201cright of limited entry\u201d to begin preparations to convert SLC-37 into a Starship launch pad. A full lease agreement between the Space Force and SpaceX is expected after the release of the final Environmental Impact Statement.<\/p>\n
The environmental approval process began more than a year ago with a notice of intent, followed by studies, evaluations, and scope meetings that fed into the creation of the draft EIS. Now, government officials will host more public meetings and solicit public comments on SpaceX\u2019s plans through late July. Then, sometime this fall, the Department of the Air Force will issue a final EIS and a \u201crecord of decision,\u201d according to the project\u2019s official timeline.<\/p>\n
A growing footprint<\/h2>\n
This timeline could allow SpaceX to begin launching Starships from SLC-37 as soon as next year, although the site still requires the demolition of existing structures and construction of new towers, propellant farms, a methane liquefaction plant, water tanks, deluge systems, and other ground support equipment. The construction will likely take more than a year, so perhaps 2027 is a more realistic target.<\/p>\n
,<\/p>\n
The company is also studying an option to construct two separate towers for use exclusively as \u201ccatch towers\u201d for recovery of Super Heavy boosters and Starship upper stages \u201cif space allows\u201d at SLC-37, according to the draft EIS. According to the Air Force, the initial review process eliminated an option for SpaceX to construct a standalone Starship launch pad on undeveloped property at Cape Canaveral because the site would have a \u201chigh potential\u201d for impacting endangered species and is \u201cless ideal\u201d than developing an existing launch pad.<\/p>\n
SpaceX\u2019s plan for recovering its reusable Super Heavy and Starship vehicles involves catching them with articulating arms on a tower\u2014either a launch integration structure or a catch-only tower. SpaceX has already demonstrated catching the Super Heavy booster on three test flights at the company\u2019s Starbase launch site in South Texas. An attempt to catch a Starship vehicle returning from low-Earth orbit might happen later this year, assuming SpaceX can correct the technical problems that have stalled the rocket\u2019s advancement in recent months.<\/p>\n
Construction crews are outfitting a second Starship launch tower at Starbase, called Pad B, that may also come online before the end of this year. A few miles north of SLC-37, SpaceX has built another Starship tower at Launch Complex 39A, a historic site on NASA property at Kennedy Space Center. Significant work remains ahead at LC-39A to install a new launch mount, finish digging a flame trench, and install all the tanks and plumbing necessary to store and load super-cold propellants into the rocket. The most recent official schedule from SpaceX suggests a first Starship launch from LC-39A could happen before the end of the year, but it\u2019s probably a year or more away.<\/p>\n
,<\/p>\n The Air Force\u2019s draft Environmental Impact Statement includes this map showing SpaceX\u2019s site plan for SLC-37.<\/p>\n Credit: Similar to the approach SpaceX is taking at SLC-37, a document released last year indicates the Starship team plans to construct a separate catch tower near the Starship launch tower at LC-39A. If built, these catch towers could simplify Starship operations as the flight rate ramps up, allowing SpaceX to catch a returning rocket at one location while stacking Starships for launch with the chopstick arms on nearby integration towers.<\/p>\n With SpaceX\u2019s growing footprint in Texas and Florida, the company has built, is building, or revealed plans to build at least five Starship launch towers. This number is likely to grow in the coming years as Musk aims to eventually launch and land multiple Starships per day. This will be a gradual ramp-up as SpaceX works through Starship design issues, grows factory capacity, and brings new launch pads online.<\/p>\n Last month, the Federal Aviation Administration\u2014which oversees environmental reviews for launch sites that aren\u2019t on military property\u2014approved SpaceX\u2019s request to launch Starships as many as 25 times per year from Starbase, Texas. The previous limit was five, but the number will likely go up from here. Coming into 2025, SpaceX sought to launch as many as 25 Starships this year, but failures on three of the rockets\u2019 most recent test flights have slowed development, and this goal is no longer achievable.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, in Florida, the FAA\u2019s environmental review for LC-39A is assessing the impact of launching Starships up to 44 times per year from Kennedy Space Center. At nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the Air Force is evaluating SpaceX\u2019s proposal for up to 76 Starship flights per year from SLC-37. The scope of each review also includes environmental assessments for Super Heavy and Starship landings within the perimeters of each launch complex.<\/p>\n While the draft EIS for SLC-37 is now public, the FAA hasn\u2019t yet released a similar document for SpaceX\u2019s planned expansion and Starship launch operations at LC-39A, also home to a launch pad used for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy flights.<\/p>\n SpaceX will continue launching its workhorse Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets as Starship launch pads heat up with more test flights. Within a few years, SpaceX could have as many as nine active launch pads spread across three states. The company\u2019s most optimistic vision for Starship would require many more, potentially including offshore launch and landing sites.<\/p>\n ,<\/p>\n At Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, SpaceX has leased the former West Coast launch pad for United Launch Alliance\u2019s Delta IV rocket. SpaceX will prepare this launch pad, known as SLC-6, for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches starting as soon as next year, augmenting the capacity of the company\u2019s existing Vandenberg launch pad, which is only configured for Falcon 9s. Like the demolition at SLC-37 in Florida, the work to prepare SLC-6 will include the razing of unnecessary towers and structures left over from the Delta IV (and the Space Shuttle) program.<\/p>\n SpaceX has not yet announced any plans to launch Starships from the California spaceport.<\/p>\n SpaceX launches Falcon 9 rockets from Pad 39A at NASA\u2019s Kennedy Space Center and from Pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The company plans to develop Starship launch infrastructure at Pad 39A and Pad 37. United Launch Alliance flies Vulcan and Atlas V rockets from Pad 41, and Blue Origin has based its New Glenn rocket at Pad 36.<\/p>\n Credit: The expansion of SpaceX\u2019s launch facilities comes as most of its closest competitors limit themselves to just one or two launch pads. ULA has reduced its footprint from seven launch pads to two as a cost-cutting measure. Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos\u2019 space company, operates a single launch pad at Cape Canaveral, although it has unannounced plans to open a launch facility at Vandenberg. Rocket Lab has three operational launch pads in New Zealand and Virginia for the light-class Electron rocket and will soon have a fourth in for the medium-lift Neutron launcher.<\/p>\n These were the top four companies in Ars\u2019 most recent annual power ranking of US launch providers.<\/p>\n Two of these competitors, ULA and Blue Origin, complained last year that SpaceX\u2019s target of launching as many as 120 Starships per year from Florida\u2019s Space Coast could force them to clear their launch pads for safety reasons. The Space Force is responsible for ensuring all personnel remain outside of danger areas during testing and launch operations.<\/p>\n ,<\/p>\n It could become quite busy at Cape Canaveral. Military officials forecast that launch providers not named SpaceX could fly more than 110 launches per year. The Air Force acknowledged in the draft EIS that SpaceX\u2019s plans for up to 76 launches and 152 landings (76 Starships and 76 Super Heavy boosters) per year at SLC-37 \u201ccould result in planning constraints for other range user operations.\u201d This doesn\u2019t take into account the FAA\u2019s pending approval for up to 44 Starship flights per year from LC-39A.<\/p>\n But the report suggests SpaceX\u2019s plans to launch from SLC-37 won\u2019t require the evacuation of ULA and Blue Origin\u2019s launch pads. While the report doesn\u2019t mention the specific impact of Starship launches on ULA and Blue Origin, the Air Force wrote that work could continue on SpaceX\u2019s own Falcon 9 launch pad at SLC-40 during a Starship launch at SLC-37. Because SLC-40 is closer to SLC-37 than ULA and Blue Origin\u2019s pads, this finding seems to imply workers could remain at those launch sites.<\/p>\n The Air Force\u2019s environmental report also doesn\u2019t mention possible impacts of Starship launches from NASA property on nearby workers. It also doesn\u2019t include any discussion of how Starship launches from SLC-37 might affect workers\u2019 access to other facilities, such as offices and hangars, closer to the launch pad.<\/p>\n The bottom line of this section of the Air Force\u2019s environmental report concluded that Starship flights from SLC-37 \u201cshould have no significant impact\u201d on \u201congoing and future activities\u201d at the spaceport.<\/p>\n While SpaceX builds out its Starship launch pads on the Florida coast, the company is also constructing a Starship integration building a few miles away at Kennedy Space Center. This structure, called Gigabay, will be located next to an existing SpaceX building used for Falcon 9 processing and launch control.<\/p>\n The sprawling Gigabay will stand 380 feet tall and provide approximately 46.5 million cubic feet of interior processing space with 815,000 square feet of workspace, according to SpaceX. The company says this building should be operational by the end of 2026. SpaceX is also planning a co-located Starship manufacturing facility, similar to the Starfactory building recently completed at Starbase, Texas.<\/p>\n Until this factory is up and running, SpaceX plans to transport Starships and Super Heavy boosters horizontally via barges from South Texas to Cape Canaveral.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The US Air Force is moving closer to authorizing SpaceX to move into one of the largest launch pads at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida, with plans to use the facility for up to 76 launches of the company\u2019s Starship rocket each year. A draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) released this week by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[437,771,1045,428,25,1440,332,316,317],"class_list":["post-44193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-air-force","tag-cape-canaveral-space-force-station","tag-elon-musk","tag-kennedy-space-center","tag-launch","tag-slc-37","tag-space-force","tag-spacex","tag-starship"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44193"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/slc-37plan.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Department of the Air Force<\/p>\n<\/figure>\nThat\u2019s a lot of launches<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/50831768787_4a99fcc92f_o-2-copy-1280x1306-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n NASA (labels by Ars Technica)<\/p>\n<\/figure>\nShipping Starships<\/h2>\n