US Air Force wants to use Space Rockets for Transport on Earth
Ars Technica reports in two articles that the U.S. military will investigate whether it would be possible to transport material between two destinations on Earth using space rockets. Dr. Greg Spanjers, who works as a scientist at the U.S. Air Force and director of their Rocket Cargo program, says in a commentary about this:
"This idea has been around since the dawn of spaceflight. It's always been an intriguing idea. We've looked at it about every 10 years, but it's never really made sense. The reason we're doing it now is because it looks like technology may have caught up with a good idea."
The US Air Force has applied for $47.9 million to evaluate the possibility of transporting military material with space rockets in the future. Should it ever happen, it would mean that the US military would be able to transport material between two different destinations in around an hour, thus much faster than with any of the modes of transport used today.
In 2017 SpaceX already unveiled plans of transporting passengers between two destinations on Earth using its Starship in less than an hour. If the US Army decides to go further exploring the possibility of Earth-wide transport by space rockets, isn't entirely impossible that SpaceX will in any way be involved in these plans.
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