Space Force base at Cape Canaveral in Florida. [Source: spacecoastdaily.com]

By Jeff Foust,
Published by Space News, 31 October 2026

ORLANDO, Fla. — Despite a downturn in launches from Cape Canaveral this year, the Space Force is pushing ahead with efforts to support much higher launch rates, including assigning another launch site to Blue Origin.

Through the end of October, the Eastern Range, which includes Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, has hosted 60 orbital launches this year. That is well behind the pace of 2025, when the range set a record with 109 orbital launches.

Several factors have contributed to this decline. Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket has not flown since a pad explosion in late May, while United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan has also been grounded since an anomaly during a launch in February. ULA plans to resume Vulcan launches as soon as Nov. 13, while Blue Origin is working toward a return to flight before the end of the year.

Another factor was SpaceX’s announcement in August that it would no longer perform Starlink launches from Florida. Since the final Falcon 9 Starlink launch from Florida on Aug. 25, SpaceX has conducted only six launches there.

Although launch activity has decreased this year, the range needs to be ready for a major increase in the coming years, said Space Force Col. Brian Chatman, commander of Space Launch Delta 45, which operates the Eastern Range.

“In 2020, we launched 24 times, and the analysis said that, by 2030, be prepared for 100,” he recalled in a talk at The Economist’s Space Economy Summit Oct. 28. “In 2025, we did 109.”

He argued that future projections of launch demand could also underestimate activity. “The analysis shows over 600 launches in 2035, but if we don’t make the infrastructure upgrades now, when this analysis undershoots we won’t be ready for the cadence of tomorrow.”

His talk discussed ongoing efforts to develop infrastructure to support higher launch rates at the range, such as pipelines for propellants and improved electrical power distribution systems.

Another idea being pursued is a “taxiway” dedicated to transporting boosters across the spaceport. He noted that when the New Glenn booster for the NG-3 launch in April was moved from Port Canaveral, where it was returned after landing on its recovery ship, back to its launch complex, it required closing a key road at the spaceport for four and a half hours.

Chatman also said the spaceport was working to accommodate larger launch vehicles, like SpaceX’s Starship and the upgraded New Glenn 9×4. “We’re in the age of the giants. Space launch vehicles are getting bigger,” he said.

“The Cape was built out, really, in the ’50s and the ’60s. The launch complexes that were originally identified were designed for much smaller boosters, much smaller capability. And as we have had new companies come into the game, we’ve looked for open space to put them,” he said.

Notably, a chart he showed in his presentation, identifying launch sites at the Cape, listed Space Launch Complex 46 as assigned to Blue Origin. The pad, located near Blue Origin’s Launch Complex 36, had been used by Space Florida for hosting small launch vehicles as well as military testing.

In December 2025, the Space Force issued a request for information regarding use of SLC-46 for a “super-heavy” launch vehicle, defined as delivering at least 50 metric tons to low Earth orbit. The Space Force has not announced the selection of Blue Origin for that site, but the company said Oct. 16 that it was planning to add two more pads for New Glenn “on the Space Coast” beyond the two being built or rebuilt at Launch Complex 36.

Chatman also praised Blue Origin for its efforts to rebuild its original Launch Complex 36 pad after the May explosion. “We thought they were maybe a little optimistic when they first rolled that out right after the explosion,” he said of the company’s goal of resuming launches before the end of the year. “But they are all in, and we are all in helping them out. They are on track for a launch here before the end of the year.”

See: Original Article

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