FAA green lights SpaceX to build two new landing zones

Over the course of the last couple of years, the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station changed their rules on the use of landing zones, like SpaceX has used for years as (Landing Zone 1 and 2) LZ-1 and LZ-2.  With the increased pace of operations on the Cape, it would help minimize the number of disruptions to other launch complexes if the couple of launch providers that are planning to recover boosters would put a landing zone next to their launch pad.  SpaceX would have to construct two new pads, one next to SLC-40 and one next to LC-39A.  The way I interpret that, there will also need to be landing pads next to the Starship launch pads as well - if they don't qualify by using the "chopsticks" on the launch tower for everything.  

This Wednesday, FAA also gave the green light for SpaceX to construct and operate a new rocket landing zone at SLC-40 and conduct up to 34 first-stage booster landings there each year. The landing zone will consist of a 280-foot diameter concrete pad surrounded by a 60-foot-wide gravel apron. The landing zone's broadest diameter, including the apron, will measure 400 feet.  

The location of SpaceX's new rocket landing pad is shown with the red circle, approximately 1,000 feet northeast of the Falcon 9 rocket's launch pad at Space Launch Complex-40.  Credit: Google Maps/Ars Technica

SpaceX is not as far along in preliminary design for Launch Complex 39A, within a couple of miles northwest of SLC-40. 

SpaceX uses LC-39A as a launch pad for most Falcon 9 crew launches, all Falcon Heavy missions, and, in the future, flights of the company's gigantic next-generation rocket, Starship. SpaceX foresees Starship as a replacement for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, but the company's continuing investment in Falcon-related infrastructure shows the workhorse rocket will stick around for a while. 
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The new landing locations at SLC-40 and LC-39A will replace Landing Zones 1 and 2, nearly 10 miles to the south. SpaceX landed its last rocket at Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) last month but will continue using Landing Zone 2 for now. Bill Gerstenmaier, SpaceX's vice president of build and flight reliability, told reporters in July that the company is working with the Space Force and NASA to determine the "right time" to move out of Landing Zone 2.

As mentioned, LC-39A is the primary launch site for Crew Dragons, and Falcon Heavy missions.  Ars points out that there are no Falcon Heavy launches in the schedule until the second half of '26 - pretty much a year from now.  Making a concrete landing pad sounds like the kind of thing SpaceX could get done in a month, if not a weekend, although some amount of waiting for the concrete to cure and reach full strength seems like it would be in there somewhere.   

The Space Force reallocated the land around LZs-1 and 2 to a pair of small rocket companies in 2023. The two companies, Vaya Space and Phantom Space, will share the property, originally known as Launch Complex-13 when it was used for Atlas rocket launches from 1958 until 1978.

Neither company is within a year or two of launching from the Cape.  

Note that the small number of landings for the landing zone at SLC-40, 34, doesn't have much to do with SpaceX's stated goal of 170 launches this year.  About a third of the 170 will be from Vandenberg, while the majority of booster landings have always been on offshore drone ships.  Return to launch site landings are pretty rare.