Up for grabs? Private companies eye KSC facilities

Florida Today: Up for grabs? Private companies eye KSC facilities
The Kennedy Space Center site where some of the greatest shuttle payloads were prepared for launch, including the Hubble Space Telescope and interplanetary probes, is now a patch of grass.

The Vertical Processing Facility was mothballed after the Columbia disaster when the shuttles began flying only International Space Station components. Last year, with no prospective tenants and high costs to bring it up to code, the facility built in 1964 was razed without ceremony.

"It was just not on anybody's radar screen as being a viable facility for reuse," said Jim Ball, deputy manager of Kennedy's Center Planning and Development Office. "At the end of the day, it made more sense to knock it down."

As the shuttle program nears retirement, KSC officials are evaluating whether other facilities that supported three decades of shuttle flights will transition to serve new vehicles or be discarded. The center is offering use of its launch pads, runway, Vehicle Assembly Building high bays, hangars and firing rooms to private companies expected to play a bigger role in NASA missions and a growing commercial space market.

The hope is that KSC will become a hub where many rockets and spacecraft fly government and commercial missions, spurring job growth on the Space Coast and offsetting losses from the shuttles' retirement.

But matching infrastructure with the new mission isn't as simple as turning over the keys. Several challenges include:

KSC won't be sure which facilities will become fully or partially "underutilzied" after the shuttle until NASA designs the heavy-lift rocket lawmakers asked it to build by 2016 for deep space exploration missions.

Buildings where solid rocket boosters and main engines have been processed, for example, may or may not be needed depending on how much the giant rocket uses shuttle-derived components.


Congressional budget gridlock and a clamor for federal spending cuts have left companies uncertain if plans to develop commercial systems will be funded enough to make flying astronauts a good business.