New Vision Ignited Commercial Revolution at Florida’s Spaceport

Becoming the World’s Premier Multi-User Spaceport – Part 2

By Bob Granath

Well before the final Space Shuttle touched down in 2011, the burgeoning commercial space industry was expressing interest in expanding business pursuits in space. At the same time, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center found itself in a unique position. For over 30 years, most of the center’s resources were dedicated for the expressed purpose of supporting the Space Shuttle Program. Kennedy was left with excess facilities and capacity with no program requirements or funding.

How would the center and its workforce respond with this change in role?

Preparation for the Future Set in Action

A more comprehensive vision was required to meet the emerging needs of both the civil and commercial space industries as the Space Shuttle Program was officially slated to end. Center leadership began looking to the future by developing an innovative concept for the historic Florida launch site: A new multi-user spaceport.

Then Deputy Center Director Janet Petro was tasked with chairing the Master Plan Steering Group, a team composed of agency and center experts committed to maximizing Kennedy’s competitive position, namely its experience, location and infrastructure to meet the nation’s forthcoming spacefaring needs. This “Future Development Concept,” developed in 2012, called for NASA to extensively partner with industry, remove unnecessary government oversight and allow commercial ventures to conduct operations using agency facilities and launch pads. Additionally, plans called for aerospace companies to fly astronauts from a multi-user spaceport.

“We looked at the landscape searching for the best way to use the available assets,” Petro said who was promoted to center director June 30, 2021. “We realized we needed to change our focus from a big government, NASA-only space center to the agency partnering with others.”

This operational model change was unprecedented. Some questioned whether it should be done. Even if this transformation could be accomplished, many believed it would take many years for these changes to become a reality.

But this new vision sparked a commercial space revolution at the center.

New Use for Facilities

When it came to allowing new users to take over existing Kennedy assets such as the Orbiter Processing Facility, launch pads and the Launch and Landing Facility (formerly the Shuttle Landing Facility), Petro noted that with the congressional authority of the Space Act and the Commercial Space Launch Act, NASA could enter into agreements with commercial companies.

Orbiter Processing Facility (OPF) Bay 3, a structure used to process the shuttle orbiters, was the first significant partnership that signaled to the commercial community that Kennedy was serious about its transformation. Now called the Commercial Crew and Cargo Processing Facility, it is where Boeing is preparing its CST-100 Starliner spacecraft, which will carry astronauts to the International Space Station.

Additionally, at Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A, used during both the Apollo and Space Shuttle Programs, in 2014 NASA signed a property agreement with SpaceX for the use and operation of the pad. The company now is launching its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets from this historic site that includes sending the Crew Dragon spacecraft on missions to the space station.

Through agreements with the Department of Defense, Kennedy also repurposed OPF 1 and 2 for support of the X-37 Orbital Test Vehicle. In 2015, the center signed a 30-year property agreement with Space Florida for the operations and management of the Launch and Landing Facility. With that, a variety of commercial and government partners would all have access to use the three-mile long runway.

At a Kennedy Partnership Landscape Forum, then Center Director Bob Cabana explained the center’s new approach.

“Now we’ve got multiple commercial customers and we’re utilizing center assets to become a spaceport with government and commercial operations,” he said. “If you look at what we’re putting in place here at Kennedy, it’s pretty amazing.”

On May 17, 2021, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson promoted Cabana as the agency’s associate administrator.

Eliminating ‘Red Tape’

In 2015, well ahead of expectations, Kennedy met the objective of becoming a premier, multi-user spaceport, as laid out in its Master Plan.

“We have achieved the goal of building a multi-user space launch complex with modernized infrastructure for more cost-effective operations, serving multiple users,” Cabana said.

The goal was fulfilled by successfully attracting commercial partners, but in doing so, NASA had to change the way it does business.

“We knew we had to find a way to eliminate ‘red tape’ and unnecessary regulations and bureaucracy,” Petro said. “This was the game changer. Removal of unwarranted government oversight has led to innovation and efficiency.”

According to Trey Carlson, master planner in the Center Planning and Development Directorate, as much as possible the center has taken a “hands off” approach.

“Our center Master Plan was much more than a traditional ‘facility-centric’ document,” he said. “The plan described not only the assets that NASA was going to make available to the commercial industry, but also the new way that Kennedy would operate.”

For instance, the center’s safety office took a comprehensive look at its requirements and developed safety volumes that were specific for NASA controlled, shared (NASA and commercial), and purely commercial operations.

“In supporting these partners, we don’t schedule the commercial partners’ operations,” Carlson said. “Instead, we review their plans to ensure we can provide our emergency operations center to support launches and other hazardous activities. On a day-to-day basis, Kennedy provides power, water, propellants and gasses, information technology, security, safety and fire-rescue services.”

A Key Agreement

Petro added that one of the keys to NASA being free to eliminate unneeded launch regulations was a change in a long-standing practice with the U.S. Air Force (now U.S. Space Force). For over 50 years, all range operations and authority to launch at Kennedy and at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) have been controlled by the Space Force’s 45th Space Wing. For three years, Petro worked with multiple leadership levels at Air Force Space Command, CCSFS, NASA Headquarters and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to enable commercial launches from Kennedy property without Air Force oversight.

In October 2016, a memorandum was signed by the Air Force Space Command’s General John Hyten directing the Air Force to rely on the FAA licensing processes for commercial launches from Kennedy.

“As a civilian agency, NASA can operate on its own without seeking approvals from the military at the Cape,” Petro said. “And, by not mandating the commercial space operators use the 45th Space Wing for any necessary services, it allows the commercial operator to make the best business decisions for themselves.”

This business process change allows more flexibility to the commercial space community, and increases efficiency by not having unnecessary government bureaucracy in the middle.

“Except for protecting for the safety of the center’s people and our assets, commercial customers follow FAA regulations to receive their launch licenses,” she said. “We let our industry partners operate on their own.”

That paid off on Feb. 19, 2017, with the first liftoff of a SpaceX Falcon 9 from pad 39A.

While Launch Complex 39A is one of numerous existing facilities being put to new use, Blue Origin has built a sprawling new complex to manufacture rockets. The decision of where to locate its manufacturing operations was a competitive process conducted by Blue Origin, who looked at numerous locations and Southern states that would best benefit their business case. Kennedy played a pivotal role in their decision process, emphasizing the center’s flexible, business friendly environment that was established for its multi-user spaceport.

On Sept. 15, 2015, Blue Origin announced that the company would manufacture and launch reusable rockets from Florida’s Space Coast, marking the first time an entire rocket system will be manufactured and processed at that location.

The Center Planning and Development Directorate, the organization that acts as Kennedy’s “front door,” was instrumental in ensuring that processes and agreements were in place between Space Florida and Blue Origin. Space Florida is the operator of Exploration Park where the manufacturing facilities are being built. For their launch operations, Blue Origin also plans to refurbish Space Launch Complex 36, a no-longer-needed Atlas II launch pad at the Cape.

Located just west of the center’s Industrial Area, Exploration Park is a partnership formed in 2011 between NASA Kennedy and Space Florida. While on agency property, the site is just outside the center’s gates on 299 acres and is charged with fostering growth of space industry.

On Sept. 27, 2021, Terran Orbital announced plans to construct a 660,000 square foot Commercial Spacecraft and Constellation Facility at Kennedy. It will be the world’s largest satellite manufacturing facility. The new complex, to be built near the center’s Launch and Landing Facility, will consist of 10 automated and augmented hangars capable of producing thousands of different types of space vehicles and electro-mechanical devices each year. Terran Orbital’s operation is expected to create about 2,100 new jobs.

“It makes sense to encourage new construction,” Petro said. “Out of 140,000 acres of land at the center, only about 7,000 acres have been developed.”

Commercial Launch Providers

NASA at Kennedy began its shift to relying on commercial partners in 1998, with establishment of the Launch Services Program (LSP). Rather than the agency being the provider of rockets to boost satellites and spacecraft to Earth orbit and beyond, LSP relies on industry to supply the launch vehicles.

A little more than two years after the end of the Space Shuttle Program, SpaceX and Orbital ATK, now Northrop Grumman, began successfully resupplying the International Space Station with cargo. The companies developed spacecraft through public-private partnerships under the agency’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services Program to achieve safe, reliable and cost-effective commercial transportation to the space station.

Through NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, based primarily at Kennedy, partners SpaceX and The Boeing Company have developed safe, reliable and cost-effective access to and from low-Earth orbit with American-built rockets. SpaceX’s Crew Dragon began ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station in 2020 with Boing to follow with its CST-100 Starliner.

While relying on industry to support transportation to the space station and meet other needs, NASA continues to focus on development of the Orion crew vehicle, Exploration Ground Systems and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket that one day will send astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit.

The SLS is a new heavy-lift launch vehicle, more powerful than any previously built, capable of sending humans aboard Orion to destinations such as the Moon and Mars.

“Allowing industry to provide our transportation to low-Earth orbit means the NASA team can focus on what we do best – exploration,” said Cabana. “We’ve got a lot of work going on here at Kennedy. Our new approach will help us advance the mission of putting boots on Mars.”

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of articles on how NASA’s Kennedy Space Center became America’s premier multi-user spaceport. Next month read about how operating as a multi-user spaceport provides efficient operations.

No copyright claimed for this feature that appeared in its original form on NASA.gov on June 20, 2017 at:

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-vision-sparked-commercial-space-revolution-on-space-coast