(Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal) – A Canadian company looking to build a propulsion system for hypersonic aircraft is planning to set up shop at Cecil Spaceport, the Jacksonville Aviation Authority said Tuesday.
Space Engine Systems was lured to the area because the spaceport has already received required environmental and Federal Aviation Administration approval required to conduct testing at the former Navy base, JAA spokesperson Michael Stewart said.
“What we’re starting to find is that, between the military and other entities looking into the R&D side of supersonic and hypersonic flight, this is going to be a segment of our business,” he said.
The spaceport has one tenant, Generation Orbit, which has tested a functional liquid rocket prototype engine at Cecil. Another company, Space Perspectives, is also looking to conduct tests there, while a third, Aevum Inc., is in talks about conducting launches.
Space Engine Systems has signed a letter of intent with the authority, with the details still to be worked out, including how many employees will be at the site — although the company said it “will bring in several highly trained space/aerospace personnel to Florida shortly.”
The company is expected to move into temporary hangar space — perhaps a facility being built by Jacksonville JetPort — with an eye toward having a permanent hangar built for it in the future.
When the final agreement is reached, Cecil Spaceport will function as Space Engine Systems’ North American operation. The company has a similar arrangement with Spaceport Cornwall located in St. Mawgan, Newquay, in the United Kingdom.
“Cecil Spaceport is doing their best to provide us with all the support and the willingness to work with SES for our launch experimental flight both for suborbital and LEO (low Earth orbit),” Space Engine Systems President and Chief Technology Officer Pradeep Dass said in a statement.
The Jacksonville Aviation Authority has been working to get flights into near earth orbit from Cecil Spaceport for more than a decade.
Although the pandemic has caused some schedules to slip, launch operations are on track to begin in early 2021 from the former Navy base turned air and space port, spaceport Director Todd Lindner previously told the Business Journal.
Photo courtesy of NASA