The sonic boom from the landing of a space shuttle at Kennedy Space Center is a thing of the past , but the growing commercial space boom at the Cape is reverberating throughout Volusia County .
Earlier this year , the Volusia County Council amended the future land use map to include a new commercial space industry opportunity overlay zone with an eye toward preparing the county to attract more aerospace companies and take Volusia to the next frontier .
“ The overlay zone is property that the county has jurisdiction over ,” said Rick Karl , Volusia County director of aviation and economic resources .
The overlay zone encompasses nearly 12,000 acres of land , essentially covering the southern portion of the county acting as a gateway to the Rick Karl “ space triangle ” of commercial and government space operations centered on Cape Canaveral . The overlay includes some 435 acres of undeveloped land on the south end of the Daytona Beach International Airport property .
Karl said the push to attract aviation and aerospace companies is not new , but the creation of the overlay sets the stage for boosting the county ’ s efforts to be an active player in the industries .
“ The county has land-use jurisdiction and that is why the overlay zone works for that ,” he said . According to the background information provided to the County Council on the overlay zone , the land-use change puts
Volusia in a position to bring those high-tech industries to the area “ and has the potential to become the preferred site for suppliers and service organizations that will
support the rapidly developing commercial space launch industry .”
A report commissioned by the county and conducted by consultant Bryce Space & Technology illustrated the rapid growth in the aviation and aerospace sectors , a nearly $ 350 billion global industry .
In addition to amending the county ’ s future land use map and identifying potential sites for development , county staff also identified targeted industries and established a process to reduce the time necessary to issue development permits in the overlay zone .
Karl said even before the overlay was created the county has seen interest from the commercial space industry .
“ We worked on two Blue Origin programs ,” he said , referring to the aerospace company founded by Amazon president and CEO Jeff Bezos .
Karl said one of the projects ended up going to a site just outside the gates of Kennedy Space Center and the other went to Huntsville , Alabama .
County officials said the area ’ s growing role in the commercial space industry is a result of the end of the shuttle program in 2011 .
When the federal government stepped back from launch activity at Cape Canaveral , private companies took up the slack energizing the commercial space industry . The growth of the sector is reflected in the rising number of orbital launches from Kennedy Space Center , which totaled 114 in 2018 , the most in 28 years .
According to the Bryce report , since 2000 more than 250 venture capital firms have invested nearly $ 14 billion in start-up space companies with more than 20 percent of that investment going to companies with operations at Kennedy Space Center including SpaceX and Blue Origin .
COUNTY ew space race
NOVEMBER 2020 | 5 |