The Williamson County Commissioners Court has signed off on creating the Central Texas Spaceport Development Corporation (SDC).
An SDC is a nonprofit organization designed to prioritize dedicated infrastructure for spacecraft, rockets and satellites, known as spaceports. These include building and developing specialized facilities to facilitate space-centric initiatives. Spaceport infrastructure includes:
- Areas intended for use in space flight activities.
- A building or facility that is reasonably near a launch vehicle, reentry vehicle or spacecraft launching or landing area.
- Areas near to a launch vehicle, reentry vehicle or spacecraft launching or landing area that are intended to be used for a spaceport building or facility.
- A right-of-way relating to any of the above.
Williamson County will collaborate with Burnet County to further space exploration initiatives through the Central Texas SDC. The corporation will be overseen by a seven-member board of directors, empowered by the authority granted under Chapter 507 of the Texas Local Government Code. The code stipulates that SDCs may:
- Use eminent domain to acquire property for spaceports.
- Manage financial investments in spaceport infrastructure.
- Undertake spaceport projects to develop relevant infrastructure, promote business enterprises, educational programs, job training or development and expansion of affordable housing related to a spaceport.
The Central Texas SDC will be the sixth spaceport in Texas. The other spaceports include:
- Launch Site One West Texas, operated by Blue Origin.
- Boca Chica and McGregor Launch Sites, operated by SpaceX.
- Midland Spaceport, operated by Midland International Airport.
- Houston Spaceport, operated by the Houston Airport System.
Williamson and Burnet counties anticipate the SDC will propel space-faring innovation by attracting new synergistic companies to the area. Incoming partners would collaborate with a space transportation company headquartered in Cedar Park to advance launch, lunar and on-orbit services. The Burnet County commissioners will vote on the creation of the Central Texas SDC on March 25.
(Photo courtesy of SpaceX on Pexels.)