SAVANNAH, Ga. (Washington Insider Magazine) – Critics of a planned commercial rocket spaceport on the Georgia coast are requesting the court to invalidate the project’s government license, claiming that the Federal Aviation Administration miscalculated the hazards of firing rockets over residences and a famous tourist attraction.
According to ABC NEWS, attorneys with the Southern Environmental Law Center have filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court seeking to have the FAA revoke the launch facility operator license that was issued to the proposed Spaceport Camden in December. Camden County authorities have spent over $10 million in the last decade trying to create a spaceport for sending satellites into orbit.
Rockets would be launched above Little Cumberland Island, which has around 40 private dwellings, and Cumberland Island, a federally preserved wilderness that attracts roughly 60,000 tourists every year. The National Park Service and local residents are concerned that catastrophic misfires could cause wildfires near residents and homes.
The FAA permitted county authorities to downplay potential safety hazards by basing their permit application on a fictional rocket “which does not exist” and is smaller than existing commercial rockets, according to the suit filed on account of environmental organizations and homeowners. It claims the FAA failed to follow its own standards, which state that such “unproven” rockets must be held to higher standards.
According to the lawsuit filed, a key FAA executive reportedly told Spaceport Camden critics in March 2019 that he doubted the project’s success.
According to the documents, a delegation of homeowners from Little Cumberland Island flew to Washington to speak with FAA officials, namely Wayne Monteith, the department’s associate administrator for commercial space travel at the time.
According to FAA spokesperson Steve Kulm, the office does not discuss pending lawsuits. Monteith is no longer an employee at the FAA and is not included in the complaint as a defendant. Monteith’s wife said that he was traveling Thursday when contacted by phone. He did not respond to a request for comment right away.
Commissioners in Camden County, a 55,000-person community on the Georgia-Florida border, have long claimed that a launch site would bring economic expansion not only through rocket launches, but also through tourism and allied industries.
Opponents argue that the spaceport’s proposed location on an industrial site once used to manufacture weapons and pesticides poses significant safety and environmental risks that exceed any financial gains.
According to the FAA’s final environmental assessment on Spaceport Camden, county authorities submitted a sufficient and effective strategy for handling fires and other issues that could occur during rocket launches.
However, when the FAA gave the county a spaceport license in December, it stated that a separate and more thorough study would be needed before any rockets could be launched.
After collecting more than 3,500 petitions signed by registered voters stating that they sought the spaceport on the ballot, opposition forced a referendum on the idea in March.
The spaceport suffered a major setback as a result of this. The final total revealed that 72 percent of voters agreed with the resolution to cancel the project, overturning the commission’s previous decision to purchase property for the spaceport.
Officials from the county have given no signal that they want to close the spaceport. They voted just days after the referendum to proceed with the purchase of property for the development. Meanwhile, commissioners are pursuing a legal lawsuit in Georgia to have the referendum deemed invalid.