FAA Struggled To Get Safety Info On Camden Spaceport For Years, Emails Show

In multiple emails, Federal Aviation Administration staff expressed concern about how Camden’s originally proposed launches could be safe enough for the population beneath its proposed rocket trajectories.

Camden County Board of Commissioners

In its quest to open a vertical launch spaceport, South Georgia’s Camden County has for years failed to provide the Federal Aviation Administration with safety information needed for its application, according to internal agency emails reviewed by WABE.

This comes after news Monday that the licensing process will be delayed indefinitely. The FAA was expected to release a major environmental report on the proposal this week, but two days prior, Camden County decided to amend its launch site operator license application. It now wants to only fly small rockets.

In multiple emails obtained through open records requests by the Southern Environmental Law Center, FAA staff expressed concern about how Camden’s originally proposed launches could be safe enough for the population beneath its proposed rocket trajectories, which would cross over two barrier islands. And up until at least October, the county had not alleviated those concerns.