JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — From the control tower to the tarmac of the third-longest runway in the state, Action News Jax got a behind-the-scenes look at progress at Cecil Field and Spaceport Tuesday morning.
There’s been more than $600 million of capital investment at Cecil since 1999, and $1.7 billion more is expected over the next two decades.
“It’s what makes Cecil so unique, right, is that huge runway with developable land on the east side,” said Director of Cecil Airport and Spaceport Matt Bocchino.
Bocchino said development on the 320-acre spaceport property will take shape over the coming decades.
“Whether it be rocket manufacturers, satellite manufacturers, anything associated with rocket testing, even any laboratory space or payload processing facilities, that sort of thing. Again, things that wouldn’t come here if we weren’t a spaceport,” said Bocchino.
Cecil is one of just nine spaceports in the country with authorization for horizontal launch, but at least in the short term, the focus is shifting towards other priorities.
Bocchino explained that’s because the industry itself has shifted away from horizontal launch due to the success of reusable vertical launch technology developed by companies like SpaceX.
Space Florida CEO Rob Long argued Cecil is well-positioned to adapt to whatever use the industry needs.
“What makes Cecil unique is it already brings to bear a lot of very robust infrastructure and activities here because of the aerospace activity that blend very well together,” said Long.
Looking ahead, Cecil has its eye on reentry authorization, with a goal of securing the designation in the coming years.
“Once we get that license, I mean, we’re technically open for business for reentry operations. It won’t happen in the next couple years more than likely, but if it does, we’re ready for it,” said Bocchino.
The next step to securing reentry authorization is contracting with a consultant.
That’s expected to be done by next March.
From there, authorization will likely be secured within 18 to 24 months.
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