The latest player in the growing U.S. commercial space industry is in Camden County, Georgia, about an hour north of downtown Jacksonville.
Earlier this month, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal signed into law the "Georgia Space Flight Act," which clears the way for the proposed Camden Spaceport — an idea that’s been kicking around for at least a decade.
County Administrator Steve Howard is in charge of the spaceport project.
LISTEN | This story is featured on Redux
“We envision the spaceport to be much like an industrial park but the only difference is we have to do another layer of due-diligence. And that due-diligence requires us to go through the process with the FAA and one of the milestones is an environmental impact statement that you’re required to do and that’s what’s underway now.”
The study will take two years to complete.
Of special concern to environmentalists is the effect vertical launches could have on the protected Cumberland Island National Seashore, with the proposed rocket-launch site less than five miles away.
However, Jacksonville’s Cecil Field Spaceport is approved for horizontal rocket launches — that’s when rocket-carrying planes blast them into space from over the Atlantic Ocean.
Contact reporter Cyd Hoskinson at choskinson@wjct.org, 904-358-6351 and on Twitter @cydwjctnews
