The U.S. Air Force announced on Monday that it intends to make two landing pads on a remote island in the Pacific . It wants to land rockets there as part of a test of the Rocket Cargo Vanguard platform , which involves germinate rocket into place loaded down with supplying to ship stuff around the planet faster .
The pitch for Rocket Cargo Vanguard is that it could allow the U.S. military todeliver anything anywhereon the planet in “ 90 minutes or less . ” How ? By shoot a rocket engine ( presumably a reusable SpaceX one ) loaded down with provision into blank space and then bringing them back down to Earth . The military is moderately good at fire rockets , both into space and through the airwave , it ’s less good at making certain those things land safely .
Enter Johnston Island , a belittled state mass in unincorporated U.S. territorial dominion that ’s about 700 nautical miles off the cost of Hawaii . As first noticed byStars and Stripes , the Air Force upload a notice to theFederal Registeron March 3 that signaled its design to build trial platforms on the island .
A mockup of the Rocket Cargo Vanguard program.© Air Force art.
It ’ll take some time before they can start building , however . “ Johnston Atoll includes the Johnston Atoll National Wildlife Refuge and is within the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument , ” the notice said . Because of that the Pentagon will have to analyse the effects landing monumental rockets on the island may have on the “ crucial Pisces habitat , migrant birds , and other protected species . ”
The Air Force thinks that all these studies will show that building two landing pad on the island so it can try bring down rockets there will have “ no significant encroachment ” on the island , but it plan to make its reports public in former April . Once those reports go live , it ’ll reserve a 30 day period for the public to notice on the proposal .
The military machine has been work out on shooting cargo into space for at least half a decennium . Now retired general Stephen R. Lyons gave a speech at a National Defense Transportation confluence in 2020 where heteased a future of rocket shipping . “ Think about prompt the equivalent of a C-17 payload anywhere on the globe in less than an hour , ” Lyons say . “ Think about that speed associated with the movement of transportation of cargo and people . There is a lot of electric potential here and I ’m really emotional about the team that ’s work with SpaceX on an opportunity , even perhaps , as early as 21 , to be conducting a proof of principle . ”
© Air Force art.
A war machine is only as skilful as its logistics . One of the reasons the American military has been so dominant in the twentieth and 21st century is its power to move humans , provision , and equipment anywhere on the major planet . One of the most iconic image from the Global War on Terror is aBurger King supply truckdisembarking from a C-17 in Afghanistan in 2004 . Imagine the same thing happening , in 90 moment or less , via Elon Musk ’s rocket salad .
One of the problems with the skyrocket merchant marine architectural plan is cost . fuel and flying a C-17 stretch down with up - armored Humvees to the Middle East is expensive , yes , but it ’s still cheaper than set up a arugula into space . One of SpaceX ’s finish is to drive down the monetary value of launches by re - using pieces of the rocket , but a undivided launch is still estimate to be tens of millions of dollars .
Despite the costs , the dreaming of scud guns , food , and pitch into space persists . “ Once realized , Rocket Cargo will fundamentally alter the rapid logistics landscape , connect equipage to joint warfighters in a fraction of the time it takes today , ” John Raymond , a retired Space Force full general , said in a public press release about the programme in 2021 . “ In the event of conflict or humanitarian crisis , the Space Force will be able to provide our home leadership with an independent choice to reach strategic objective from blank . ”
zephyr forceElon MusklogisticsrocketsSpace ForceSPACEX
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