Western launch capacity is usually discussed in terms of rockets: how many, how reusable, how cheap. Those questions still matter, but they are increasingly not the ones setting the pace. In 2021, 36 rockets launched from Cape Canaveral. Last year it was 110, with another 65 from Vandenberg, and the Space Force has said the two ranges could see up to 3,000 launches a year by 2036. Much of that growth has run through ground infrastructure built decades ago. As reusable rockets start to behave more like transportation assets, the infrastructure beneath them will need to make the same transition.

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John David Callison is a global strategic sourcing executive and civic leader with over two decades of experience negotiating and operationalizing technology infrastructure across hyperscale cloud platforms, AI ecosystems and mission-critical data environments,...

Joseph Minafra serves as Lead of Innovation and Technical Partnerships for the NASA Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute (SSERVI) at NASA Ames Research Center. With a diverse background spanning collaborative technology development, meteoritic...