Georgia county files suit to force land sale for spaceport

spaceport camden
This artist's sketch provided by Spaceport Camden shows the launch pad complex of the proposed Spaceport Camden in Camden County, Ga. Georgia's highest court Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023, upheld an election in which coastal residents voted overwhelmingly last year to block their county government from building a launchpad for blasting commercial rockets into space. (Spaceport Camden via AP, File)

Spaceport Camden / Spaceport Camden

A Georgia county has filed a lawsuit seeking to force a company to sell land on which the county has long planned to build a launchpad for commercial rockets.

Commissioners in coastal Camden County said in a statement Thursday that Union Carbide Co.’s refusal to sell the 4,000 acre (1,600 hectare) property, if allowed to stand, “will cause the County the loss of the Spaceport Project as well as an enormous financial loss in excess of $11 million.”

County officials have spent that sum over the past decade seeking to license and build Spaceport Camden, a site for launching satellites into space.