WASHINGTON — The U.S. Air Drive is about to launch an environmental impression overview for a novel army logistics challenge, proposing the development of two touchdown pads on Johnston Island, a distant atoll within the Pacific Ocean.
The pads would help the reentry of automobiles underneath the Air Drive’s Rocket Cargo program, an initiative led by the Air Drive Analysis Laboratory (AFRL) to harness business rockets and reentry capsules for fast international cargo supply.
In a notice scheduled for publication within the Federal Register on March 3, the Division of the Air Drive will formally announce its intent to arrange an environmental evaluation. The overview will consider the consequences of constructing and working the touchdown pads on Johnston Atoll, the place as much as 10 reentry automobile landings can be deliberate yearly over 4 years. This testing section goals to display and refine the capabilities of the Rocket Cargo program, which envisions delivering important provides to any level on Earth inside hours.
The environmental overview will contain collaboration with a number of federal businesses, together with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Nationwide Wildlife Refuge System, given the atoll’s standing as a part of the Pacific Distant Islands Nationwide Wildlife Refuge. A draft of the evaluation is predicted in April, adopted by a 30-day public remark interval, providing stakeholders an opportunity to weigh in on the challenge’s implications.
Strategic foothold within the Pacific
The Air Drive recognized Johnston Atoll because the optimum website after evaluating a number of distant, government-controlled places, together with Kwajalein Atoll, Halfway Island, and Wake Island. Johnston stood out as the one location assembly all operational standards: it’s distant, securable, U.S.-controlled, accessible by air or sea, and able to supporting the barged elimination of reentry automobiles. These necessities would align with the FAA’s Launch and Reentry Licensing Necessities, which prioritize public security by mandating remoted touchdown zones for such operations.
Johnston Atoll, situated about 700 nautical miles southwest of Hawaii, has a storied army previous. For the reason that Thirties, it served as a hub for nuclear testing, missile protection, chemical weapons storage, and even an Air Drive anti-satellite weapon test. Decommissioned in 2004, the atoll was handed over to the Nationwide Wildlife Refuge System, although remnants of its army infrastructure — together with an airfield — persist.
Cargo reentry capsules
The Rocket Cargo program represents a daring step in army logistics, leveraging the burgeoning business area sector to shrink supply timelines. Conventional airlift strategies, whereas dependable, can take days to maneuver cargo throughout continents. In distinction, AFRL goals to make use of area automobiles — such as reentry capsules dropped from rockets in flight — to realize same-day supply. Firms like Inversion Area, Outpost, Sierra Area, and Varda Area are growing such capsules. Launch suppliers like SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and Blue Origin maintain Air Drive contracts to display these capabilities.
One state of affairs can be a rocket launches into orbit, releases a cargo-laden reentry automobile, and the automobile glides again to Earth, touchdown exactly at a chosen website like Johnston Island. Pending environmental approval, Air Drive hopes to start testing this yr, utilizing the Johnston touchdown pads to validate the expertise’s feasibility and security.
