Rep. Spencer’s Georgia Spaceflight Act Endorsed by Commercial Spaceflight Federation
State Representative Jason Spencer (R-180) announced on Monday that the Commercial Spaceflight Federation has expressed support for the passage of the Georgia Spaceflight Act (HB 734), sponsored by Rep. Spencer.
Spencer believes that the legislation will enhance Georgia’s recruiting of the commercial space industry to make the state competitive. Industry leaders are in need of another east coast launch site, and Spencer stated that the site in Camden County, GA is the last place on the east coast where this can occur.
HB 734 defines procedures for spaceflight activity, as well as limits a willing space flight participant who has given consent’s ability to sue for damages related to the spaceflight activities. The bill does not protect against injuries suffered by non-consenting third parties, except for noise and nuisance protections. It is modeled after the Texas law, Limited Liability for Space Flight Activities, but it introduces an industry standard that is used in all “space friendly” states.
The Commercial Spaceflight Federation is an industry group made up of over 70 businesses and organizations as members that is working to make commercial human spaceflight a reality. Eric W. Stallmer, President of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, wrote of HB 734 in a letter to the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Wendell Willard:
“As the commercial space industry continues to grow from its current base of $330 Billion per year, Georgia has an opportunity to position itself as an attractive hub for the industry’s future business activities and operations, bringing significant economic and inspirational benefits to the citizens of Georgia. With this growth there is need for additional launch capacity on the East Coast of the United States that is not a government-centric launch site, and southeast Georgia is probably the last and best place to site such an installation.
“Already Georgia has a number of attributes that will make it fertile ground for future commercial space activities including an existing robust aerospace industry, access to a talented pool of Georgia Tech, Georgia, Columbus State and other graduating engineers, as well as launch and manufacturing at the future Spaceport Camden. With the FAA-led Environmental Impact Study (EIS) wrapping up in the next few months, having the Georgia Spaceflight Act in place as law will be a critical signal to industry that Georgia wants the jobs, innovation economy, and inspirational aspirations that come with the commercial space industry.”
You can find more information on the Georgia Spaceflight Act here.
About Author
mnh84647
I am a sophomore from Chatsworth, Georgia currently studying journalism and political science at UGA. I am interning in Washington, D.C. next year, and I hope to one day pursue a law degree.
Add a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.
A good idea as long as it does not involve any more special tax credits/exemptions/deductions/exclusions. Perhaps the state could market the 1400 acre Pooler property to the space industry although this property may be too far inland.
The Pooler property is being reviewed for being broken up into smaller parcels. With the new wind load areas for commercial buildings, it is get expensive to build large scale industrial factories east of I-95 in Chatham, Bryan and Liberty counties. When the state or the Savannah Metro area has put out packages for large companies in the last 8 years or so, they have been looking at the Effingham County Industrial park area west of the port outside Rincon and along the I-16 corridor. The mid size sites around the airport have been basically sold out, and smaller satellite sites for suppliers for Gulfstream, Boeing, BMW and Mercedes are needed close to both the port, the airfield and the rail heads.
The state has been screwing around with that property since ’02. The original plan was a Chrysler factory but that deal fell through. I see where Pooler recently de-annexed the property and gave it to the county. It just seems odd they would have so much difficulty marketing that property considering its 95/16 location and other advantages.
OK, an observation as a question.
Can you help me reconcile the statements of “…as it does not involve any more special tax credits/exemptions/deductions/exclusions.” with “The state has been screwing around with that property since ’02.”?
It seems you want the state to simultaneously waive a magic wand while at the same time doing nothing that would otherwise allow the “free market” to take its course. This isn’t abnormal, but rather common. It seems people simultaneously expect the state to be responsible for economic development but want to also make sure they use no tools at their disposal to achieve it.
The state should never have purchased the property in the first place. Now, 14 years out and it still belongs to the state? Maybe the state should stay out of the real estate business.
But my comment/question stands. Why can’t they sell that property?
Ellynn has addressed most of it (as I understand it). It was assembled specifically to market as a single parcel. It is unique given it’s location with the port, airport, size, etc. It was tailor made for a large manufacturer, but companies that it was targeted to only come around every few years. It was Georgia’s opening bid for auto plants, etc.
If the goal was to flip it quickly, it would be warehouses and a trucking drop yard. The point of this site (and a few others) is/was to have something ready for that transformational economic development opportunity. After a few near misses, it has apparently been re-evaluated and marketed for smaller opportunities in smaller parcels.
Let me give you an alternate missed opportunity: A friend of mine told me over a year ago we were about to squander one of the best EcDev sites available in the country to come along in years because the goal was to get a quick sale. I didn’t know what he was talking about, so he described a site that fronts two major interstate highways, is at a hub of all major utilities and fiber optic main lines, is a relatively flat rectangular 80 or so acres, and downtown. These are characteristics that someone that wanted to build either a large industrial project or a corporate campus would kill for. But we needed it to be dumped quickly for political reasons.
So, instead, we’re going to have another football and baseball stadium downtown for Georgia State, and build a few dorms and classrooms while we’re at it.
It could have been great, but we’re willing to settle for “good enough” to get it done quickly.
That site gets looked at 3-7 times a year that you seldom hear about. At least two large scale companies who looked at it but the site never made it into the “final round” of possible sites listed when asked why was due to cost of the work force (they built inland where the base pay pay is cheaper then the Savannah Metro) and lack of “tax credits/exemptions/deductions/exclusions”.
Plus part of that site was bought 7 years ago Mishubuti makes large scale turbine pieces. Most will end up the Vogel site.
Can a spaceport be built in Camden? They would have to find an area with no marsh or boggy wetlands, which is almost impossible for large scale construction and will take years of Army Corp of Engineer approval. They will have major issues with soils being able to bare the weight of super sized structural concrete footings and 8 -24 inch pads and runways. NASA and the U.S. Air Force do not have to deal with this because they can override environmental impact reports because they have national security as a flag to wave around and they can afford to bring in a million tons of dirt and stabilize acres of inland wetlands at a time. -since you know Military spending is all the rage right now and what member of congress is going to question a military expense.
Which leads me to my next question, will the Department of Defense even allow rockets and rocket fueled aero craft to fly anywhere near the Kingsbay fleet’s port? Last I checked, rocket fuel and reactor cores/nuclear weapons do not play well together. DoD already closed off half the clear airspace as you approach the St. Mary’s airport. You can’t even build within 5 miles of the base with out a D of D release. If you build south of the sub base, can you get air clearance over the fleet out of Jacksonville?
To Infinity and Beyond!