Jan 6 1999
From The Space Library
An independent study group commissioned by the U.S. Air Force announced the findings of its investigation into the loss of business at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Retired U.S. Air Force General Richard C. Henry had headed the group, comprising 11 government agencies and 19 aerospace firms. After surveying commercial launch companies and satellite manufacturers, the group had measured the cost and ease of doing business at Cape Canaveral against three prime competitors: the European Space Agency's Kourou Space Center in French Guiana, South America; Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome, primarily used by Russia; and China's Xichang Space Center. General Richard Henry summarized the crux of the group's findings: "companies regard Canaveral as superb in location and facilities, but rank it second primarily because of the perception that the commercial customer is second to the government customer." Companies had sought launch services elsewhere to avoid the bureaucratic red tape associated with Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, operated by the U.S. Air Force. With increasing demand, spaceports in South America, Russia, and China had been doing more business during the previous two decades, at Florida's expense. The group issued three recommendations to correct the situation and to attract business to Florida: 1) boost the number of launches staged from Cape Canaveral, 2) shift to customer-friendly operations, and 3) modernize launch-support systems at the spaceport, many of which the United States had first implemented in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
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