Florida wants a commercial spaceport – now

The head of Space Florida, the state’s new overarching space agency, wants a “horizontal launch” spaceport operating in the state as soon as possible. Florida Today reports that Steve Kohler, president of Space Florida, said the state needs to “immediately secure” an FAA license for such a spaceport to capture suborbital space tourism business and other commercial businesses. (Hopefully Koehler realizes that spaceport licenses often take many months, if not years, of work, as people in New Mexico and Oklahoma would testify.) That approach suggests the state will look to refit an existing airport to handle spaceflights (as in Mojave and Oklahoma) rather than developing a new purpose-built spaceport (as New Mexico is doing). The article doesn’t mention any such sites, but previously one such facility that has been considered for a spaceport is Cecil Field, a former naval air station near Jacksonville, whose operators have already been doing the preparatory work needed to obtain a license.