The Paso Robles City Council voted unanimously last week to move forward with an application for a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Commercial Spaceport License.
This is a long-term economic development project to diversify our economy and attract higher-paying jobs, said Paul Sloan, Paso Robles Economic Development Manager.
Paso Robles has been working on two parallel projects at the airport since 2022: pursuing the FAA license and building what the city calls a tech corridor. Sloan said the city has already created a test site at the airport that is being used by three aerospace engineering firms and Cal Poly students.
Sloan said the next step for the spaceport project is moving forward with the FAA license process.
We are meeting this week to get the RFP document out, and then there’s obviously a process to have companies have time to submit a proposal, then we need [to] review them, he said.
If the license is approved, the spaceport would be used for research and horizontal launches. Sloan said the city will fund the remainder of the licensing effort and that, if all goes to plan, the licensing application should be complete by early 2028.