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As arguably the leading private space enterprise in the world, SpaceX has built up a lot of momentum over the years. Recently, the company filed an application to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). It apparently has to do with landing a Falcon 9 rocket in California, which would be its first time doing so in the state. It’s possible that it could happen this year.
“This STA [Special Temporary Authority] covers the experimental first-stage recovery operation, following a Falcon 9 launch from Vandenberg Air Force Base. This request is limited to the brief command uplink from a ground antenna at the landing site to the launch vehicle after landing,” the application reads.
SpaceX generally has two options when it comes to landing its rockets, The Verge recently reported. One is to land via a drone ship in the middle of the ocean. The other is to land it on a launch pad, which is usually in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
If the company actually manages to land a Falcon 9 rocket in California, it would be its first time to do so on the West Coast. It’s worth noting that this particular achievement pertains to landings and not launches. The Vandenberg Air Force Base has actually seen launches by SpaceX before, with rockets that carried satellites as payloads.
On that note, the infrastructure for landing rockets in the California base has actually been in place for a while. The company built a landing pad there in 2015, but it took a long time before SpaceX was actually granted a permit to do so.
In terms of timeline, the permit that it filed with the FCC indicates that SpaceX is planning on launching a rocket from the Vandenberg Air Force Base between Sept. 5, 2018 and March 5, 2019. This means that if all goes well, California could see both the launch and the landing of a Falcon 9 before this year ends.
