This is the original title, but it's grossly misleading. They've abandoned the plan to conduct the project at a particular location. From the article text:
> In response to that report, the Air Force had said it would conduct an environmental assessment, but is now instead exploring alternative locations for the program
The title from Stars & Stripes is more accurate: Air Force suspends plan to land cargo rockets on remote Pacific atoll
What an obnoxious site. I highlighted the text and attempted to copy it with C-c only to have the cursor placed in the search bar at the top.
anenefan · 11h ago
I tried to replicate with no luck - however I also block a bunch of BS API / script servers.
I note suspend is the term they're using too. Using a somewhat isolated area does make sense but oceans come various other issues / problems. Last few paragraphs sums up the growing discontent of the area of being used as a convenient area for the US.
>The rocket cargo program would use commercial rockets, such as those made by Elon Musk’s Space X, although the Air Force has not announced industry partners.
The Air Force had also considered building the landing pads on Kwajalein Atoll, Midway Island and Wake Island, all of which have ongoing operations by the U.S. military.
Johnston Atoll has also had a long history of military operations — and extensive contamination as a result.
In the 1950s and 1960s, it was used for numerous missile launches during nuclear weapons testing. Launch failures during several of those tests led to plutonium contamination on the atoll.
The Pacific Islands Heritage Coalition, which launched the change.org petition, said in a March 13 news release that building the launch pads on Johnston “only continues decades of harm and abuse to a place that is culturally and biologically tied to us as Pacific people.”
The petition states that under control of U.S. armed forces the atoll “has endured the destructive practices of dredging, atmospheric nuclear testing, and stockpiling and incineration of toxic chemical munitions. The area needs to heal, but instead, the military is choosing to cause more irreversible harm.”
> In response to that report, the Air Force had said it would conduct an environmental assessment, but is now instead exploring alternative locations for the program
The title from Stars & Stripes is more accurate: Air Force suspends plan to land cargo rockets on remote Pacific atoll
https://www.stripes.com/branches/air_force/2025-07-02/johnso... Source - Stars and Stripes
An aside:
What an obnoxious site. I highlighted the text and attempted to copy it with C-c only to have the cursor placed in the search bar at the top.
I note suspend is the term they're using too. Using a somewhat isolated area does make sense but oceans come various other issues / problems. Last few paragraphs sums up the growing discontent of the area of being used as a convenient area for the US.
>The rocket cargo program would use commercial rockets, such as those made by Elon Musk’s Space X, although the Air Force has not announced industry partners.
The Air Force had also considered building the landing pads on Kwajalein Atoll, Midway Island and Wake Island, all of which have ongoing operations by the U.S. military.
Johnston Atoll has also had a long history of military operations — and extensive contamination as a result.
In the 1950s and 1960s, it was used for numerous missile launches during nuclear weapons testing. Launch failures during several of those tests led to plutonium contamination on the atoll.
The Pacific Islands Heritage Coalition, which launched the change.org petition, said in a March 13 news release that building the launch pads on Johnston “only continues decades of harm and abuse to a place that is culturally and biologically tied to us as Pacific people.”
The petition states that under control of U.S. armed forces the atoll “has endured the destructive practices of dredging, atmospheric nuclear testing, and stockpiling and incineration of toxic chemical munitions. The area needs to heal, but instead, the military is choosing to cause more irreversible harm.”