WASHINGTON – The US Air Force will launch an environmental Impact review for a new military logistics project, in which the construction of two landing pillows on Johnston Island, a remote Atol in the Pacific Ocean, proposes.
De Pads would support the return of vehicles under the Rocket Cargo program of the Air Force, an initiative under the leadership of the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFFL) to use commercial rockets and return capsules for fast global freight release.
In a notification planned for publication in the Federal Register on 3 March, the Ministry of Air Force will formally announce its intention to prepare an environmental assessment. The assessment will evaluate the effects of building and operating the landing cushions on Johnston Atol, where a maximum of 10 recurring vehicle landings would be planned in four years every year. This test phase is intended to demonstrate and refine the possibilities of the Rocket Cargo program, which occurs to delivering critical supplies to each point on earth within a few hours.
The Environmental Review will collaborate with multiple federal agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Wildlife Refuge System, given the status of the Atol as part of the Pacific Remote Islands National Wildlife Refuge. A draft of the assessment is expected in April, followed by a 30-day public commentary period, which offers stakeholders the opportunity to weigh the implications of the project.
Strategic foot in the Pacific Ocean
The Air Force identified Johnston Atoll as the optimal site after evaluating various remote locations controlled by the government, including Kwajalein Atoll, Midway Island and Wake Island. Johnston stood out as the only location that met all operational criteria: it is remote, secured, controlled by the US, accessible by air or sea and able to support the disguised removal of return vehicles. These requirements would join the Lancing and return permit requirements of the FAA, which prioritize public safety by obliging insulated landing zones for such activities.
Johnston Atoll, located about 700 nautical miles southwest of Hawaii, has a legendary military past. Since the 1930s it served as a hub for nuclear tests, rocket taf weather, storage of chemical weapons and even an air force anti-satellite weapon test. Turned out of use in 2004, the Atol was transferred to the National Wildlife Refuge System, although remains of its military infrastructure – including an airport – arrest.
Cargo -Terugkeercapsules
The Rocket Cargo program represents a daring step in military logistics, which uses the fast -growing commercial space sector to reduce the timelines of the delivery. Traditional air bridge methods, although reliable, can take days to move freight over continents. ADL, on the other hand, aimed at the use of space vehicles-such as return capsules that have fallen out during the flight from rockets to reach delivery on the same day. Companies such as inversion space, Buitenpost, Sierra space and Varda space develop such capsules. Launch providers such as SpaceX, Rocket Lab and Blue Origin hold Air Force contracts to show these options.
One scenario would be a rocket that is launched in a job, a truck with drawers goes back, and the vehicle slides back to earth and lands exactly on a designated site such as Johnston Island. In anticipation of the environmental approval, Air Force hopes this year to start testing the Johnston landing cushions to validate the feasibility and safety of technology.