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Space Florida on Wednesday advanced plans to renovate two former shuttle hangars that might eventually house a secretive military space plane program.

The agency’s board approved spending up to $4 million more to overhaul Orbiter Processing Facilities 1 and 2 at Kennedy Space Center, on top of $5 million committed last year from funds provided by the state Department of Transportation.

As before, the future tenant was not identified, but is believed to be the Air Force’s X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, a reusable unmanned system that resembles a small space shuttle. Previously, the Air Force has confirmed it is studying consolidation of X-37B operations at Kennedy or the Cape to save money.

Space Florida President and CEO Frank DiBello said a customer is lined up to use the hangars that NASA no longer needs.

“This is a project which involves the relocation of personnel and equipment from another state to Florida to conduct operations that are in support of Department of Defense activities,” he said. “This is activity which really represents next-generation systems work.”

DiBello indicated the project, known as Coyote, could also make use of Kennedy’s former shuttle runway.

That would support speculation about a space plane that could not only be processed and launched here but return for landing.

The first two X-37B missions landed at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. A third flight, reusing a previously flown vehicle, launched from Cape Canaveral last December and remains in orbit.

An Air Force spokesperson did not immediately respond to questions Wednesday.

The spacecraft are built by The Boeing Co., which under a separate deal plans to lease a third shuttle hangar from the state for assembly of the CST-100 crew capsule, which is being developed to fly NASA and private astronauts.

Space Florida said it recently began the first phase of renovations to the other two hangars, a process that will include demolition of shuttle-specific infrastructure like access platforms.

The second phase, for which funding was approved Wednesday, would modernize the facilities for the new tenant to use for “spacecraft assembly, refurbishment and testing,” according to a meeting agenda.

The new tenant will match half the refurbishment project’s cost.

In other business Wednesday, the board approved accepting state appropriations totaling $19.5 million for the budget year that began in July.

Those include $10 million for operations and another $7 million to help finance new business initiatives that could attract jobs.

Quelle: Florida-Today