If a spaceport is built, will it be used by the military?
Despite efforts of the state to portray it as a commercial (and presumably civilian) facility, its use to carry military missions aloft is not only possible, it is anticipated in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement.
In 1990, the Legislature passed a bill prohibiting launches from Hawai’i of vehicles carrying weapons, nuclear waste, or payloads employing radioactive materials as a power source. According to the DEIS, that bill, signed into law, “is a statement of the desire and intent to use the commercial launch facilities for the peaceful exploration of space and to prohibit those payloads that could cause harm or destruction. Some payloads related to the military could be launched, however, including weather, communications and navigation satellites.”
The DEIS provides a list of commercial licenses issued to launch companies by the federal Office of Commercial Space Transportation. The list (which appears in Volume VI, Appendix C, “Impacts of Payload Handling Accidents,” by ACTA) suggests the wide range of payloads that meet the “commercial” definition.
Several of the payloads seem to be related to migrogravity research or telecommunications functions. But a fair number of these so-called commercial payloads are missions that support the Department of Defense’s Strategic Defense Initiative program. Examples include two ZEST payloads launched at the Kaua’i Test Facility and three LEAP payloads, described as “govt research-suborbital.” (The licensed launch company for ZEST and LEAP missions is identified as Orbital Sciences Corporation.)
The table listing commercial space launches is instructive as well in the statistics it provides on commercial launch success rates. Of the 24 licensed commercial launches that occurred prior to January 31, 1992, 19 were successful and five failed, for a failure rate of almost 21 percent. (For more on this subject, see the March 1993 edition of Environment Hawai’i, [url=members_archives/archives_more.php?id=1165_0_31_0_C]”STARS Latest in Series of SDI Projects at Kaua’i.”[/url])
Yet another table in this same appendix lists “NASA payloads that could be launched from Hawai’i” (Table 4-3). Although material published so far by DBEDT concerning the spaceport states that the largest launch vehicle will be a medium expendable launch vehicle (such as a Delta or Atlas rocket), this table suggests the possibility of something larger. One possible payload, the Lunar Transit Telescope (to be launched in the year 2002 or later) would require an intermediate or “large-class” expendable launch vehicle. Another mission involves placing weather satellites into polar orbit (POLAR METSAT). Both Atlas and the much larger Titan rockets would be used for these launches, according to the table.
Finally, the Conceptual Plan for the spaceport published earlier this year suggests that the Japanese H-2 vehicle may be a candidate for launching from Ka’u. The H-2, fueled by liquid propellants with two solid strap-on motors, is scheduled to be ready for its first flight sometime in 1994.
Volume 4, Number 2 August 1993