In the medium term, the Commercial Crew Program will begin launching American astronauts into space. KSC Space Center must continue to promote itself as the heavy-lift spaceport for both human space exploration and cargo. This is a distinct advantage that it has over other domestic launch facilities. KSC should seek the ability to adapt infrastructure to support additional launch systems of any class and new systems employing horizontal takeoff or recovery.  KSC should plan on a delayed demand surge through the medium term and focus on diversifying the customer base across more aspects of the supply chain.

Opportunities

Medium-term actions that take advantage of and/or leverage, secure and expand KSC’s position in the non-NASA market include:

• Ensure lessons learned in the near-term commercialization effort are adopted as the marketing program moves forward.
• Brand KSC as the platform that can quickly provide companies access to space.
• Establish a market reputation as efficient and customer-focused.
• Coordinate launch vehicle “piggy backing” with customers to pool launch costs.
• Publish 5-year plans or provide transparency of operations and business decisions; this is lacking in parts of the industry and could be an incentive for doing business with KSC.
• Develop a visible representation as the new era of space exploration grows; KSC is a brand — when customers think of spaceflight, they think of KSC Space Center.
• Continue to market KSC as a space tourism destination.
• Expand KSC as a hub of space technology research and development, capturing an increased proportion of federal expenditures and collaborating with local partners to transfer technology to local businesses.
• Establish an off-site, outreach office to meet with potential customers.