Thom Moore is a retired NASA scientist and fellow of the American Geophysical
Union. He consults and writes as proprietor of 3rd Rock Research in Scarborough.

There are efforts underway to establish a space launch capability along Maine’s Down East coast. Though complicated by some concerns, a space industry could make beneficial contributions to Maine’s economy and to the national supply of viable launch sites.

Maine’s seagoing culture depends upon fishing, lobstering and scenic tourism; the environmental and biological health of the seacoast is of deep concern to Mainers. You won’t find many global warming deniers here, nor many who scoff at the need to keep pollutants out of the ocean.

The business of setting up a launch site quickly becomes a matter of siting, facilities and routing of supplies and equipment. There are also considerations of safety both at the site and downrange, since rocket launches do have risks. A launch site requires a coterie of related businesses with their own facilities.

Prominent launch sites include Kennedy Space Center, of course, and also Vandenberg AFB in California. A smaller launch site is active at Wallops Island, Virginia. So why is Maine a candidate for another launch site?

The rate of space launches is rising with the use of more cost-effective reusable rocket boosters. A large number of satellites are being launched to create a worldwide wireless network that will extend internet connectivity to every corner of the globe.

The key for Maine is the utility of polar orbits, because they fly over the entire globe. Polar orbits require a launch site free of populated areas downrange of the site to the north or south. So Maine, with its long coastline extending eastward to New Brunswick, is well suited to southward launches over the Gulf of Maine, then on across the Atlantic Ocean and beyond.

A recent Maine Monitor article notes that two Maine towns have voted to prohibit commercial rocket manufacturing or launches within their boundaries. Concerns were expressed about the effects on local fisheries, noise, pollution from exhaust and a suspected lack of regulation.

The Maine Space Corporation, a nonprofit organization, is exploring launching at sea from a ship that would be docked somewhere along the coast, to be determined.

The concerns are valid in a state that prides itself on its natural beauty and pristine wilderness, attracting a huge tourist industry that is important to the state’s economy. Can space launches be conducted safely and with sustainable resources doing minimal damage to the environment? Would a more active economy be a boon or a disadvantage to the Down East seacoast? Are there
more suitable sites for a spaceport?

One notable candidate may be the Naval Computer and Telecommunications Station, now inactive apart from an “Environmental Restoration Program” conducted there by the Navy.

There is real interest in the Down East Maine coast as a launch site for satellites going to polar orbits, for sound reasons. The establishment of a spaceport here would provide opportunities for businesses involved in building and operating such a facility, not to mention the continuing business of building and launching satellites from it.

Those would necessarily depend upon STEM educational capabilities in Maine and the employment of graduates from such programs, involving the Maine Space Grant Consortium, Maine universities and the developing Roux Institute at Northeastern University.

Space activities have brought prosperity elsewhere and would be a net asset to Maine. They were
missing in my youth, sending me away for 40 years. The inspiration of space work would help retain young people in Maine and spin-off other creative innovations that also contribute to the prosperity and well-being of Mainers.