Johnson Atoll becomes a "do not use" land preserve

Johnson Atoll is an unincorporated US territory and Pacific island wildlife refuge located about 860 miles southwest of Hawaii, which has been used for many military projects of different types over the last 90 years.  

[T]he island hosted an airfield during World War II before operating as a launch site for atmospheric nuclear tests during the 1950s and 1960s, some of which resulted in plutonium contamination at the atoll. The US government then requisitioned the area for chemical weapons experiments with similar consequences before ultimately cordoning it as a remote storage depot for the same deadly biological agents.

This year, the Atoll was announced as being under consideration for testing the elements of a new military cargo system based around the idea of shipping tons of cargo anywhere quickly.  

Those decades of progress appeared in jeopardy earlier this year. In March, the Air Force first announced intentions to once again requisition the unincorporated US territory, this time for its Research Laboratory’s Rocket Cargo Vanguard Program. The US Space Force-affiliated endeavor aims to establish a system to deliver as much as 100 tons of cargo to anywhere on Earth in less than 90 minutes.

“In the event of conflict or humanitarian crisis, the Space Force will be able to provide our national leadership with an independent option to achieve strategic objectives from space,” Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay ” Raymond said during the program’s announcement. 

SpaceX is the only launch provider mentioned, presumably for Starship and SuperHeavy which SpaceX has talked about as launching suborbital flights like this: that is, trips between any two points on Earth in 90 minutes.  Another possibility is that linked story is published in Popular Science and it must be considered that SpaceX is mentioned because they don't expect their readers to know Blue Origin's New Glenn, or ULA's Vulcan by name and they're using SpaceX to get more clicks.  

The Department of the Air Force’s confirmation, first provided to Stars and Stripes, came ahead of a planned environment assessment and amid mounting pressure from conservationists.

“The Department of the Air Force has elected to hold the preparation of the Johnston Atoll Environmental Assessment for a proposed rocket cargo landing demonstration on Johnston Atoll in abeyance while the service explores alternative options for implementation,” Air Force spokesperson Laurel Falls said in the email.

The article explains the situation in language you see regularly when conservation groups don't want a particular place to become environmentally spoiled - that is, made less pretty to them.  The big story is the place being ruined by the new controllers of the now-spoiled island, and a "noble savage" hurt by the new users.  

Johnson Atoll is home to 14 different species of tropical birds.  Image credit: Credit: USFWS / Tor Johnson