U.S. Rep. Earl “Buddy” Carter (R-GA) led all of the Georgia members serving in the U.S. House of Representatives in supporting Spaceport Camden Georgia being developed by a public-private partnership as the nation’s commercial space center.
“We write in support of Camden County’s application for a Launch Site Operator’s License under the Office of Commercial Space Transportation,” the lawmakers wrote in a June 18 letter sent to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Acting Administrator Dan Elwell.
“The Spaceport Camden project is extremely important to the economic future of coastal Georgia and marks the beginning of an excellent opportunity to leverage the research and expertise present in the region,” the members wrote. Signers of the letter included U.S. Reps. Sanford Bishop (D-GA) and Doug Collins (R-GA), among others.
The FAA on June 14 formally closed the comment period on the Spaceport Camden Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which all 14 members of the U.S. House from Georgia supported. The FAA now is working to finalize the EIS for Spaceport Camden and is currently reviewing the county’s launch site operator’s license application.
“Spaceport Camden would be the only non-federal range on the East Coast and a major component of the National Space Strategy by providing additional launch capacity for the commercial space industry,” the Georgia lawmakers wrote in their letter to the FAA’s Elwell.
And as commercial space needs continue increasing, the development of similar projects could ensure American companies remain world leaders in space technology, the lawmakers noted in their letter.
“Spaceport Camden, through its location and latitude, provides a unique site to meet the needs of East Coast spaceport users,” according to their letter. “We look forward to working with the FAA to empower local communities to build upon the commercial space work being done across the country.”
Also supporting the Spaceport Camden EIS are U.S. Sens. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) and David Perdue (R-GA); former Speaker of the House and National Space Council Advisory Group member Newt Gingrich; Georgia State Superintendent of Schools Richard Woods; the Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF); the Coastal Regional Commission of Georgia; the nonprofit ACCG, which serves as the consensus building, training and legislative organization for all 159 county governments in the state; and Tucson, Ariz.-based Vector Space Systems, the first company to launch a test rocket from the proposed Camden County site.
All have sent individual letters of support for the project to the FAA, advocating for a fast approval of the draft EIS and that the launch site operator’s license be issued for Camden County, according to a June 20 statement from the Camden County Board of County Commissioners.
CSF President Eric Stallmer noted in the statement that the National Space Council and the Trump Administration have made streamlining launch and reentry licensing a focus of national space policy.
“Streamlining launch and reentry licensing without increasing launch capacity simply shifts the innovation bottleneck from regulatory licensing to launch delays and range congestion,” Stallmer said.
Camden County Administrator Steve Howard, who is also the Spaceport Camden project lead, said, “The support from elected officials, commercial space companies, and space policy advocates all reaches the same conclusion: the United States needs more launch capacity and Spaceport Camden is best suited to meet this demand.”