By Leonard David Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON D.C. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved a SpaceX launch site on privately owned property in Cameron County Texas. The decision provides final environmental approval of launch licenses 
or experimental permits to allow Space Exploration Technologies Corp. or SpaceX to launch a variety of re-usable suborbital vehicles placing Cameron County Texas at the forefront of future space exploration.
SpaceX has proposed to construct and operate a private launch site to accommodate the number of launches that the company has on its launch manifest.
The Federal Aviation Administrations (FAA) office of Commercial Space Transportation has published a Record of Decision giving approval for a SpaceX Texas Launch Site in Cameron County Texas.
This decision provides final environmental determination and approval to support the issuance of launch licenses and/or experimental permits that would allow Space Exploration Technologies Corp. to launch the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy orbital vertical launch vehicles and a variety of reusable suborbital launch vehicles from a launch site on privately owned property in Cameron County Texas.
The decision was signed on July 9 by Dr. George C. Nield head of the FAAs Commercial Space Transportation office.
SpaceX flies a reusable rocket prototype (left) the F9R on a test flight from its McGregor Texas proving grounds.
The proposed private launch site is needed to provide SpaceX with an exclusive launch site that would allow the company to accommodate its launch manifest and meet tight launch windows.
SpaceX intends to apply to the FAA for launch licenses and/or experimental permits to conduct launches of the Falcon Program vehicles and a variety of reusable suborbital launch vehicles for a total of up to 12 commercial launch operations per year from the proposed launch site on privately owned property in Cameron County Texas. The FAA would likely issue launch specific licenses for the first few years of operation from the exclusive launch site. SpaceX may then apply for a launch operator license which lasts for five years and covers the same family of vehicles.
Leonard David is an award-winning journalist is SPACE.coms Space Insider Columnist and a correspondent for Space News newspaper. A contributing writer for the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics (AIAA) Aerospace America magazine he served as Director of Research for the National Commission on Space during the mid-1980s.
