The Runway at the Edge of Tomorrow

For more than three decades, Kenneth Hooks has seen Cape Canaveral from his perch inside the nation's most unusual air traffic control tower. The tower controls access to the Shuttle Landing Facility, a 15,000-foot long runway that hosted shuttle touchdowns until the program ended in 2011.

This runway is a symbol of where spaceflight has been. Now it's becoming a key hub of the future. Since 2015 the runway, tower, and other pieces have been operated by Space Florida, the state's spaceport development authority seeking to boost commercial business ventures. And this place is a key part of the return of human spaceflight, too.

The Shuttle Landing Facility is simply massive—15,00 feet long and 200 feet wide, with two feet of concrete at its the center. It can accommodate some of the largest aircraft in the world as well as spaceplanes traveling at high speeds. There are two wide asphalt drive lanes on either side of the concrete. The lip between the two are evident near this plaque commemorating the final shuttle mission.

A closer look at the plaque.

When the STS-135 mission ended to close out the space shuttle program—right here, as marked on the runway—the fate of Cape Canaveral and the Space Launch Facility was uncertain. In 2015 the state of Florida took it over with the intent to make it useful to the emerging private space industry. "Users are great," says Jimmy Moffitt, the SLF Airfield manager. "But we want tenants." It remains a private use airfield.

Space Florida has ambitions to make Cape Canaveral a center of commercial spaceflight, and steady financial support by the state has made it an alluring spot for the leading private space players. If tenants do show up, they will need places to park airplanes, store fuel and oxidizers (far apart, please), form companies and process payloads. They are eyeing this 400-acre patch of land between the SLF and the iconic Vehicle Assembly Building, seen here from the tower, to develop these facilities.  

Recent activity at the spaceport is raising hopes for the future. The best example could be Blue Origin's ongoing construction of a rocket manufacturing facility at the development corp's Exploration Park. Owned by Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin hopes to build some of the world's largest rockets here. With SpaceX building its own spaceport in Texas, having Blue Origin move into the neighborhood is a very welcome sight for the folks at the Cape.

Kenneth Hooks knows this is one of the best ATC jobs in the world.  He's worked this tower for 37 years.  There's not too much work—300 operations per month, an amount even modest public airports can do in a day. But the things that land here are world class and unique, like massive Anantov freighters carrying multi-million dollar communication satellites, the Super Guppy carrying NASA equipment, and sensitive deliveries of Department of Defense payloads by C-5s.

Hooks has seen a lot from the SLF control tower since Spaceport Florida took over. This includes performance testing of high-end cars along the high-friction straightaway and a visit from vintage B-17s and rare cargo planes.  He also has the best seat in the house to watch the biggest collection of operating F-104 Starfighter aircraft in the world. In this photo, one is jetting past the tower.

The F-104s flying at the SLF belong to Starfighter Aerospace, the only private company operating there. The aircraft is unique and amazing. It's basically an missile-like fuselage, a massive engine and stubby wings. Icons like Chuck Yeager flew them to break sound-barrier speed records, and NASA used them used to train astronauts who blazed to high altitudes and dropped, giving them more than minute to practice rocket-powered maneuvers during this period of parabolic-induced weightlessness.

The man behind the plan is Rick Svetkoff, a former Navy and commercial pilot who flew F-104s on the air show circuit. He gave that up and devoted himself to buying and flying F-104s for profit. "Everything I own is these airplanes," he says. Right now he flies Starfighters to test pilot and astronaut equipment, including real-time health monitoring of test pilots.

The FAA labels Svetkoff's fleet as "Experimental" which heavily restricts the business uses of the craft. If the FAA or Congress changes this, he'd be able to pursue other clients. One example: taking experiments and equipment to high altitudes and produce zero-g during parabolic drops. This kind of testing is vital to space scientists and engineers developing components for spacecraft.

Like everyone else at this spaceport, he's looking for a foothold in the new world of commercial space.