Johnston Island, as seen from a U.S. Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules aircraft, Oct. 1, 2018. (U.S. Coast Guard)
The Department of the Air Force has tagged an isolated Pacific island as a test site for landing rockets capable of delivering tons of cargo anywhere on the planet at lightning speed.
The department signaled its intent Monday to build two rocket landing pads on Johnston Island within Johnston Atoll, an unincorporated U.S. territory 717 nautical miles southwest of Honolulu, according to a notice in the Federal Register.
The Air Force Research Laboratory’s Rocket Cargo Program would involve leasing commercial rockets to deliver cargo faster and more cheaply than planes, according to the lab’s website.
The goal is for “up to 100 tons of cargo to be delivered anywhere on the planet within tactical timelines,” the website states.
The department must first prepare an environmental assessment of the impact that building and operating the proposed landing pads will have on “essential fish habitat, migratory birds, and other protected species,” according to the notice. Johnston Atoll National Wildlife Refuge is part of the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument.
The landing pads would accommodate up to 10 reentry vehicle landings per year over four consecutive years to “support the test, demonstration, and evaluation of capabilities” of the Rocket Cargo Vanguard program. The department expects to start rocket-delivery testing this year.
The Department of the Air Force, which includes the Space Force, anticipates that building and operating the landing pads will not significantly impact the environment, according to the notice.
A draft assessment may be ready in April for a 30-day public comment period, according to the notice.
Potential rocket missions include delivery of equipment to quickly restore a loss of mission operations or for humanitarian aid and disaster relief, the website states.
This illustration demonstrates how cargo rockets may enable rapid delivery of large payloads for urgent humanitarian assistance and disaster response, according to the Department of the Air Force. (Randy Palmer/U.S. Air Force)
In October 2020, Army Gen. Stephen Lyons, at the time the head of the U.S. Transportation Command, told the National Defense Transportation Association that officials were working with Elon Musk’s Space X on rocket cargo deliveries. The Federal Register notice does not mention Space X participation in the trial.
“Think about moving the equivalent of a C-17 (Globemaster III cargo plane) payload anywhere on the globe in less than an hour,” Lyons asked the virtual audience, according to an Oct. 8, 2020, Air Force news release.
U.S. forces are preparing to disperse across the Indo-Pacific in the expectation of missile attacks on established bases in a conflict with China over Taiwan or in the South China Sea.
To sustain forces across a vast swathe of territory the Air Force has been renovating World War II-era airfields from Micronesia to the Philippines.
Johnston Island was used in the 1950s and 1960s for rocket launches in support of nuclear tests, according to the Air Force Space and Missile Museum at Cape Canaveral, Fla.
Between 1958 and 1975, many scientific rockets were also launched from the island, according to the museum website.
Chemical weapons were stored there until 2003, according to an undated U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report on the island.
Officials also considered Kwajalein Atoll, Midway Island and Wake Island as rocket landing sites, according to the Federal Register notice states.
