The U.S. Air Force announced on Monday that it intends to build two landing pads on remote islands in the Pacific. It hopes to land on the rocket as part of a test of the Rocket Cargo Pioneer Program, which involves shooting the rocket into space filled with supplies to transport it around Earth faster.
The Rocket Cargo Pioneer's pitch is that it can enable the U.S. military to deliver anything anywhere on Earth in “90 minutes or less.” how? By shooting rockets (presumably reusable space X), load consumables into space and bring them back to Earth. The military is good at launching rockets into space and into the air, so it is not very good at ensuring that these things land safely.
Enter Johnston Island, a small land on the U.S. non-corporate territory, and the cost is about 700 nautical miles from Hawaii. As the stars and stripes initially noticed, the Air Force uploaded a notice from the Federal Gazette on March 3, which marked the purpose of establishing a test platform on the island.
However, it will take them some time to start building. “Johnston Atoll includes the Johnston Atoll National Wildlife Sanctuary, located within the Pacific Island Heritage Marine National Monument,” the notice said. Therefore, the Pentagon will have to study the impact of a large number of rockets on the island that may be “necessary fish habitat, migratory birds and other protected species.”
The Air Force believes that all of these studies will show that two landing pads are built on the island so that the landing rockets there can be attempted to have “no significant impact” on the island, but it plans to release its report in early April. Once these reports come online, the public will be allowed to comment on the proposal for 30 days.
The military has been working to shoot cargo into space for at least five years. Now retired General Stephen Lyon gave a speech at the 2020 Defense Transport Conference, mocking the future of rocket transport. “Think about moving the payload equivalent of C-17 to anywhere in the world in less than an hour,” Lyon said. “Think about the speed associated with cargo and people transport. There is a lot of potential here, and I'm very excited about the team working with SpaceX and maybe even proof of principle as early as 21.”
The army has only its logistics. One of the reasons the U.S. military is so dominant in the 20th and 21st centuries is its ability to move humans, materials and equipment anywhere on the planet. One of the most iconic images of the global war on terrorism is that Burger King supply trucks disembarked from Afghanistan's C-17 in 2004. Imagine that the same thing happened in 90 minutes or less through Elon Musk's rocket.
One of the problems with rocket transport plans is cost. Yes, the fueling and flying C-17 is full of a full Hummer, which is expensive, yes, but it is still cheaper than launching a rocket into space. One of SpaceX's goals is to reduce launch costs by reusing rockets, but a single launch is estimated to cost tens of millions of dollars.
Despite the expenses, the dream of shooting guns, food and equipment into space remains. “Once realising that rocket cargo will fundamentally change the fast logistics landscape, connecting supplies to the time spent today,” a press conference for the retired space force said in a 2021 press release. “In a conflict or humanized crisis, the space crisis will provide our nationwide a separate option to achieve a separate space to achieve a separate goal that makes it strategic and strategic.
