FAA seeks input on new US spaceport sites and launch corridors
regulatory
The FAA requested input on siting new spaceports and priority launch corridors as launch forecasts near 10,000 a year.
what happened
The FAA published a request for information on August 25 seeking public input on potential new commercial spaceport locations, including island sites and options outside the continental US, and on designating priority launch corridors and airspace-management approaches, per SpaceNews. The agency also asked why several existing licensed commercial spaceports see limited use and what would boost their utilization. Comments are due 60 days after Federal Register publication. SpaceNews reported that 83% of 2025 US commercial launches flew from just three federal sites, Cape Canaveral, Kennedy Space Center and Vandenberg, and that the Department of Transportation has set a goal of 10,000 licensed launches and reentries a year by 2035, well above the FAA's own 2026 forecast of 276 to 498 annual commercial operations by 2035.
why it matters
Coastal Florida's two federal ranges are the bottleneck for the cadence SpaceX, Blue Origin and others say they need; an RFI is an early step, not a decision, but the sites and corridors that get named will shape where the next generation of launch-site investment, jobs and local infrastructure deals land outside Florida and Texas.
signal-to-noise
quick facts
- Companies
- none listed
- Category
- regulatory
- Impact
- notable
- SNR
- 4 / 5
- Event date
- 2026-08-25
- Published
- 2026-09-02 17:30 UTC