(GA Recorder) — The long journey to launch rockets off the Georgia coast is running low on fuel as Spaceport Camden opponents brace for a final push from county officials to salvage their plans.
Camden County’s spaceport project suffered a new setback Thursday as the Georgia Supreme Court refused to block the certification of Tuesday’s special election in which Camden residents overwhelmingly made it clear they don’t want the spaceport to be built.
However, the court order leaves open the door for Supreme Court justices to determine whether the constitutional law intended to protect against runaway governments should have applied to the spaceport petition that argued it’s a dangerous and unsustainable project.
Spaceport opponents say they’re concerned that the county commission will take another route, such as having a spaceport authority or an investor to complete a deal with Union Carbide Corp. for the former industrial site.
County Administrator Steve Howard said on Friday that the private sector is showing interest in building a spaceport that will comply with federal licensing requirements.
“They have indicated their renewed interest in having their own spaceport,” Howard said in an email. “Camden’s future remains bright!”
In December, after years of planning and review and a $10 million investment from the county, the Federal Aviation Administration approved an operator’s license allowing up to 12 commercial rocket launches annually.
Nevertheless, opponents were able to collect enough signatures to trigger Tuesday’s special in which 72% of the just under 6,000 ballots cast were in opposition to the project, which blocks the county from finalizing its agreement with the chemical manufacturer for 4,000 acres of property.
Megan Desrosiers, president and CEO of coastal environmental organization One Hundred Miles, said the election results should send a powerful message to local officials that they should stop wasting taxpayers’ money on plans to shoot off rockets toward sensitive barrier islands.
“Camden County wasn’t being transparent with what they were doing and it caused the people in Camden County and the elected officials to split,” she said. “This referendum, I hope, brings people back together and really clearly communicates to the elected officials in Camden County what the values of their constituents are.”
“As long as (county officials) have it in their heads that they’re in the right and everybody else is wrong, they’re going to keep pushing the spaceport, and they’re going to do so by every means possible,” Desrosiers said.
Several days before the special election, the County Commission called its own special meeting to select members to serve on the spaceport authority.
Republican state Rep. Steven Sainz, who represents Camden, said he will introduce legislation early next week with a sunset to terminate the authority, created in 2019 by legislation he sponsored.
Sainz issued a stern warning to commissioners before Election Day that the authority is meant to help attract companies interested in working in Camden.
“I will not stand aside and see that this piece of legislation created a few years ago be utilized in a way that allows the county to ignore the votes of my constituents, my voters and neighbors as well,” he said in a Facebook video.
Camden officials hail the project as a regional economic driver that will create well-paying jobs in the aerospace industry.
The current Spaceport vision is scaled down to smaller vehicle launches replacing initial plans to launch rockets as big as the 230-foot-tall SpaceX Falcon 9.
All launches would have to be approved by federal and state agencies.
