Tulsa City Council Approves Funding For Rocket Testing Facility

The Tulsa City Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to proceed with building a rocket testing facility at Tulsa International Airport.

The City Council voted to approve using $20 million in tax money to help build the facility alongside "Agile Space Industries."

The facility would eventually be located on airport land near the Amazon Fulfillment Center.

Jim Bridenstine, former NASA Director, spoke to the City Council during Wednesday night's meeting.

He says the U.S. is launching thousands of satellites per year. For those to launch, the thrusters have to be tested.

Bridenstine says right now, many companies are having to test overseas because there aren't adequate options in the U.S.

"A lot of the companies across the country that are building these thrusters, are taking them to England because they need the capacity to do the testing," Bridenstine said. "We want to build that capacity here in Tulsa, and when we do, this facility becomes a magnet for all kinds of testing because they don't want to go abroad to do it."

In addition to rocket testing, the facility will serve as an anchor for a larger Tulsa Space Park in the future.

Construction is expected to take two years.

Bridenstine says a big concern could be noise because testing rockets is very loud. He says there are plans to create a thermal-vacuum chamber, which would drastically reduce the noise to a level about as loud as someone speaking.