Huntsville International Airport has been approved by the\nFederal Aviation Administration (FAA) to allow commercial space vehicles to\nland in Huntsville. Huntsville International Airport, located in North Alabama,\nis the first commercial airport in the U.S. approved as a reentry site to\nreceive a space vehicle landing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHuntsville has propelled us into another historic first for\nour state with the award of the commercial space vehicle reentry license for\nHuntsville International Airport,\u201d said Gov. Kay Ivey. \u201cWe appreciate the\ncollaboration exhibited by our public and private partners to make this a\nreality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The concept of a space vehicle landing began in 2014 with a\nconsortium of public and private partners including Huntsville International\nAirport, Teledyne Brown Engineering, Sierra Space, RS&H, the\nHuntsville\/Madison County Chamber of Commerce, the City of Huntsville, Madison\nCounty, the City of Madison, The University of Alabama in Huntsville, the\nMilitary Stability Foundation and the State of Alabama.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe landing of Dream Chaser at Huntsville International\nAirport is part of a vision for economic development that continues our legacy\nin space science and taps into our workforce expertise and assets developed for\nthe International Space Station,\u201d said Tommy Battle, Mayor of Huntsville.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Landing the Dream Chaser in Huntsville was identified as one\nof three pillars of the commercial space strategy developed in 2016 for the\nHuntsville\/Madison County Chamber. The Chamber has been working to build a\ncommercial market for low Earth orbit using the Dream Chaser as the\ncornerstone. Efforts include sponsoring two competitions with the European\nSpace Agency, hosting three workshops for industry and academic partners,\nhosting a panel discussion on research and development in microgravity at South\nby Southwest (SXSW), exhibiting at the National Space Symposium and Space Tech\nExpo Europe, and several media stories including a national profile on Fox and\nFriends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The reentry license application was submitted by Huntsville\nInternational Airport in November 2021, and approval was contingent upon the\nfinding of no significant impact through the FAA\u2019s Environmental Assessment.\nThe public was invited to participate in the assessment, which examined air\nspace, noise, historical preservation, wildlife and impact to waterways within\nthe anticipated reentry trajectory of the vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Initially, the obtaining of the FAA license is specific to\nDream Chaser; however, this proof of concept supports other space reentry\nvehicles, and each would require additional FAA licensing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sierra Space has been awarded six missions by NASA to\nresupply the International Space Station via uncrewed vehicles. The effort\nincludes obtaining the FAA License to Operate a Reentry Site and a Reentry\nVehicle License. With the approval of the Reentry Site License, the team\ncontinues pursuing the Reentry Vehicle License anticipated to be submitted in\nJune of 2022. Potentially, the FAA could\ngrant the Dream Chaser the option to land at HSV starting in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is a significant milestone for Huntsville\nInternational and for our community in the pursuit of landing a commercial\nspace vehicle right here in Rocket City U.S.A.,\u201d said Mark McDaniel, Chairman\nof the Board of Directors for the Port of Huntsville\/Huntsville International\nAirport. \u201cThat\u2019s going to be an exciting day, not just for the Airport but also\nfor the talented and dedicated partners in this effort.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Huntsville International Airport has been approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to allow commercial space vehicles to land in Huntsville. Huntsville International Airport, located in North Alabama, is the first commercial airport in the U.S. approved as a reentry site to receive a space vehicle landing. \u201cHuntsville has propelled us into another historic first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22102,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alabama"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/dreamchaser-800x542.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22101"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22103,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22101\/revisions\/22103"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}