SpaceX has filed a notice of intent with the FAA, indicating it wants to conduct an Environmental Impact Study for the construction of a new spaceport in Cameron County, Texas, on the Gulf and very near the northern border of Mexico. The site could make Texas a powerhouse in commercial space.

The filing, which was apparently first found by enthusiast site HobbySpace, reads: "Under the Proposed Action, SpaceX proposes to construct a vertical launch area and a control center area to support up to 12 commercial launches per year. The vehicles to be launched include the Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy (up to two per year), and a variety of smaller reusable suborbital launch vehicles… All launch trajectories would be to the east over the Gulf of Mexico."

SpaceX has been considering the use of NASA's historical Launch Complex 39A at Cape Canaveral for Falcon Heavy launches, in addition to sites in Alaska, California, Puerto Rico and Virginia. The company already uses Launch Complex 40 at Canaveral for the Falcon 9. It's unknown at this time whether SpaceX is still interested in 39A.

The company's founder, Elon Musk, spoke late last year about a "commercial Cape Canaveral," and part of the reason may be costs. SpaceX would like to launch at least four Falcon Heavies per year to keep its costs below $1000 per pound, a price that even the Chinese government has said that it cannot beat.

A Few Possible Political Implications

The filing is intriguing for a number of reasons, not least of which is the strong opposition by the Texas congressional delegation to NASA's Commercial Crew program. SpaceX is one of four NASA partners in Commercial Crew, the object of which is to develop private sector access to the International Space Station. Texas seems to dominate the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, with five members, and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson has been one of Commercial Crew's strongest critics.

Last year, the House cut NASA's $830 Commercial Crew budget request to $300 million, delaying American access to the International Space Station by at least a year. This year the House seems poised to do the same, with strong opposition to the program expressed by the committee's chairman, Ralph Hall (R, Texas).

Texas' role as a space state stem from the actions of Lyndon B. Johnson and Congressman Albert Thomas in the early 1960's. Thomas was the state representative from Houston and the most influential force on the House Appropriations Committee when it came to spaceflight. He was also a powerful man in Houston and a close friend to LBJ, Morgan Davis of Humble Oil, and George Brown of Brown and Root Construction Company, which later became KBR.

Local businesses were heavily involved as well. Humble Oil donated the land for the Johnson Spaceflight Center using Rice University as an intermediary, with the contingency that it must be used for the new center or returned. George Brown of Brown and Root, who sat on Rice's board, handled the mechanics of have Rice in turn donate the land to NASA. Humble Oil did exceptionally well on the land surrounding the Center, which shot up in value, Brown and Root secured the $60M construction contract, and the space program gained the steadfast support of Rep. Albert Thomas. It's not known whether Thomas got anything material out of the multi-way deal.

In some sense, SpaceX's choice of Texas has the flavor of another chapter in Congressional spending politics, although it's not clear whether a proposed Texas spaceport would be enough to gain more Congressional support.

Some Practical Advantages

Politics aside, from the perspective of the population of Cameron County, the choice of Texas could potentially cement the state as a commercial space hub and eventually bring in tens of thousands of jobs. According to the Environmental Impact Report, operations would consist of up to 12 launches per year with a maximum of two Falcon Heavy launches. All Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches would be expected to have commercial payloads, including satellites and experimental payloads, and those payloads would be integrated in Texas before launching east over the Gulf of Mexico.

The site is also much closer to the SpaceX integration and testing facility in McGregor, Texas than Cape Canaveral. The mention of suborbital launch vehicles in the EIS filing suggests that SpaceX research efforts to land and reuse a first stage could be hosted from a Texas launch site. By launching east from Texas, it may be possible for the first stage to make a powered landing in Florida without having to perform a retrograde maneuver, going some way towards realizing Musk's dream of making the Falcon 9 reusable.

SpaceX could also potentially reduce costs and delays by launching from Texas. There's plenty of red tape associated with Kennedy Space Center, and the center is often reserved for large blocks of time by other launchers. If SpaceX had its own pad, it wouldn't have to share. Regardless of whether Congress delays American space access to ISS for another year, a private Texas spaceport seems attractive for the company, which has the majority of the commercial launch market sewn up over the next few years.