WASHINGTON, USA, Oct. 23, 2026 - Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant, head of Space Systems Command,^[1] said the US Space Force needs a third launch range by 2030,^[2] on top of its ranges at Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg,^[3] which will run out of capacity in the coming years.^[4] The service has formed a planning team to assess what a third spaceport needs,^[5] and several land options are under review. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink first raised the search in May.^[6][7] The push comes as White House policy, updated in August 2026,^[8] anticipates up to 1,000 US launches a year by 2030.^[9] Congress allocated $1.3 billion in 2024 for spaceport upgrades through 2028,^[10] and the Space Force already works with commercial spaceports such as Wallops Island and sites in Alaska. Existing US spaceports are projected to handle 700 launches a year by 2036.^[11][12] Impact Insight. A launch range is more than a pad: it includes the tracking radars, safety zones and airspace that let a rocket fly safely over land and sea. The link to planetary defense is indirect: the same rising cadence that drives the need for new ranges is filling low Earth orbit, which makes tracking objects near Earth, natural or artificial, an ever bigger job.