Paso Robles' Proposed Spaceport Moves Forward

Jun. 16—Paso Robles' plans for a commercial spaceport are continuing to move forward after the City Council approved a budget for the next stage of the spaceport's development process.

At the City Council's June 7 meeting, economic development manager Paul Sloan presented updates to Paso Robles' Commercial Spaceport Plan and proposed a budget of no more than $140,000 for the next stage of the licensing process, bringing the city's plans of building the spaceport closer to reality.

On a 4-0 vote, City Council members approved the budget for the next step of preparing for the license application process, which will take about 3 months. It will involve more research, communication with local authorities and visualization of more of the spaceport's concepts.

Going from air to space

Paso Robles is in the process of preparing to apply for an FAA Spaceport License application, which would permit the city to transform its underused airport into a commercial spaceport. The city has contracted Tartaglia Engineering to help it with preparation for the licensing process.

There are currently 14 approved commercial spaceports in the country and only one of them is in California — down in the Mojave desert.

City Council members and investors are excited about the opportunities that having another commercial spaceport in the state would bring to Paso Robles, as it has the potential to diversify the economy of a city that's mostly based on wine and tourism.

According to Sloan, a number of national and international companies have expressed interest in the development, as well as two venture capital firms in California.

The project has also sparked Cal Poly's interest, and the university already signed a letter of intent, expressing its desire to partner with the proposed Paso Robles Spaceport. According to a staff report, Cal Poly is excited about the potential to expand learning opportunities for aeronautics and space majors.

Sloan told The Tribune that Wagner Star Industries and Stellar Exploration have also signed letters of intent.

What does Phase 2 look like?

Last March, in a previous City Council meeting, Tartaglia Engineering said that developing a commercial spaceport at Paso Robles was feasible, after it was contracted to conduct a preliminary review.

Based on these results, the city asked the firm to provide it with a budget proposal for the second phase of preparation for the license application process. The budget of $140,000 was presented by Sloan in June's most recent meeting.

Sloan said that this new stage would include identifying more airspace corridors as well as looking into potential platforms, vehicles and space launch partners. Along with this research, Tartaglia Engineering will begin to generate more graphics and renderings of the spaceport as well as a layout plan and a preliminary plan of operations.

The proposed budget also covers the process of gaining approval from local authorities in the area. Since the spaceport plans to launch into secured airspace areas off the coast, its proposed operation route would pass through the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary.

According to the proposal, representatives of the city plan to talk to members of the Chumash Tribe and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to secure approval for this route.

The city is also planning to talk to Point Mugu and Oakland Air Traffic about the feasibility of the spaceport's potential operation routes.

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