CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Cape Canaveral City Council is considering grant proposals for possible state or federal funding for infrastructure resiliency as larger rocket launches are planned at the Cape, including future SpaceX Starship launches.
Tuesday’s meeting discussed the idea of what options would be available if the coast dealt with any damage from launches of larger rockets.
Cape Canaveral Mayor Pro Tempore Kay Jackson introduced the topic of considering strengthening infrastructure.
[WHO SHOULD BE RESPONSIBLE IF A STARSHIP ROCKET CAUSES DAMAGE?]
“As we look at the fact that these launches are coming, and we are looking at how do we prepare our city. We’re here, we’re part of the space industry with the fact that we have workers who live here ... we need to look at whatever funding or grant that we may be able to obtain in order to look at how to shore up the things in our community in preparation for those larger launches,” Jackson said.
City Manager Keith Touchberry said the city has preliminarily looked at possible grants that could help with infrastructure resiliency, and that there could be potential funding sources to look into.
“We always need to discuss alternate forms of funding so that we can protect our infrastructure, whether it’s underground or above the ground,” he said.
The U.S. Space Force told News 6 in December that SpaceX’s Starship could launch at Kennedy Space Center within months, which would mark the first Starship launch in Florida.
[WATCH BELOW: Starship break apart, impacting Florida flights]
Part of that consideration is the possibility of hiring a grant writer, councilmember Don Willis said, saying grants are going to be even more competitive with the potential that property taxes will go away and that “we’re going to have to fight for any grant money with everybody else.”
“Not to be doom and gloom, but if everything that the state legislature wants to do is passed, then it’s going to make it very difficult for cities to fund things like this. We’ve got to go after a lot of grants: state, federal, anything,” Willis said.
Council members also discussed learning more about what’s being done in Texas, where Starship tests are conducted.
Earlier this month, the federal government took another step toward allowing SpaceX to fly its Starship rocket from Florida’s Space Coast and released its final environmental impact statement for Starship.
The plan calls for up to 44 Starship launches a year from Launch Complex 39-A at Kennedy Space Center. Half of those launches would happen between the hours of 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.
The plan also calls for up to 88 landings per year, including return-to-launch site landings at or near the launch pad, or ocean landings on SpaceX’s droneships. That’s 44 Starship landings, along with 44 Starship Super Heavy landings.
The most significant environmental concern the report found was the noise from the rocket.
Meanwhile, sonic booms could also lead to a greater number of people affected, albeit at lower noise levels, including people in Titusville, Merritt Island, Cape Canaveral, Cocoa and Cocoa Beach. But the current sonic boom notices would be all that is required for now.
The other big concern will be necessary airspace closures around each launch and landing that could disrupt dozens of commercial flights.
[READ: What is a sonic boom?]
2025 was the first year more than 100 rockets launched from the Space Coast.