Gar Smith, Earth Island Journal's editor-in-chief, co-authored the Kistler story with Vernon Brechin, an environmental consultant and writer.

Smith said there is great probability for error with Kistler launches, problems that could mean collateral damage on the ground.

"I don’t see any reason to expose people in North America to that kind of potential," Smith told SPACE.com.

A first-stage Launch Assist Platform parachutes down to an airbag landing.

The journal was founded in the late 1980s and is a publication of the Earth Island Institute. Based in San Francisco, California, the institute was founded by environmental activist David Brower.

Contacted by SPACE.com, Debra Facktor Lepore, Kistler’s director of marketing in Kirkland, Washington, declined to directly respond to the magazine’s viewpoints.

Rather, Lepore said "efforts are continuing" to secure the final round of financing needed to bring the K-1 rocket through a flight test phase. "We’re hoping to gear up sooner rather than later."

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Engineering on the K-1 is 85-percent complete, Lepore said. Some 75 percent of the hardware for the first vehicle has been manufactured, and qualification testing is underway, she said.

Kistler expects to start flight tests of the K-1 one year after completion of full financing, Lepore said.

Kistler documents state that when the first K-1 takes to the sky, it will not depart from Nevada.

Only after successful demonstration of K-1 flight operations in Australia would launch-site construction begin in Nevada.

Earlier this year, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a draft assessment of Kistler’s plans to use the Nevada Test Site. Their preliminary look-see found that K-1 rockets would have little impact on the environment.

The K-1 flight profile from both Australia and Nevada dictate launch and landing over land. Kistler documents state that "this is achievable most safely from a remote area with low population density and with the necessary available infrastructure."

Kistler has recently broadened its prospective customer base by developing a K-1 ability to dispense payloads beyond low Earth orbit.

Also, the company is wrapping up a NASA-awarded contract to study how the K-1 can meet contingency resupply needs for the International Space Station, Lepore said.

The article notes that Kistler boosters eventually would streak over eight states: Nevada, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, North Dakota and California, as well as British Columbia in Canada. At least 98 major U.S. cities and native reservations would fall under the flight path of Kistler K-1 rockets lifting off from Nevada.

Tagging it unproven "fly-back technology," the magazine finds fault with Kistler’s projected flight plan that calls for the K-1 upper stage -- after it places cargo into orbit -- to plunge back to Earth and cross over a host of California cities, en route to a touchdown at the Nevada spaceport.

Use of the two-stage Kistler booster to routinely hurl satellites into space, the article declares, exposes U.S. cities to "potential rocket mishaps."

First-stage or second-stage failures of the rocket could mean out-of-control hardware falling from the sky into populated areas, the magazine claims.

The environmental magazine also waves a red flag regarding prospective spaceports elsewhere.

The article cites proposed inland spaceports in New Mexico, Montana, Utah and one suggested launch zone in Texas. From that site, the magazine adds, commercial rockets would be sent "blasting over a national seashore inhabited by white pelicans and endangered sea turtles."

Also, developing the Nevada site -- already designated as a test area for nuclear bombs -- would remove wildlife habitat and destroy desert vegetation. Launches there, the article adds, would generate a sonic boom swath that "temporarily" deafen birds and wildlife.

Environmental issues of inland spaceports shouldn't be a big deal, said rocket expert Marshall Kaplan, chairman of Satellite On Demand, Inc., of Potomac, Maryland.

"Current spaceports have the same problems. The fact that they are on a coast doesn't really matter. There are still environmental concerns. The environmental concerns from inland ports are not any more severe, for the most part. So I don't think that's an issue that will stop anything," Kaplan told SPACE.com.

However, Kaplan does raise an eyebrow regarding safety and liability issues of operating private Kistler rockets from Nevada. The change from launching vehicles over water to over land is going to be hard to do, especially with a private sector vehicle, he said.

"The FAA is not going to give them a license until they've proven they can operate their rocket safely from Nevada. That won't be for a long time. That's why they went to Australia," he said.

Kaplan said that controlled reentry has long been proven by the space shuttle.

"The Kistler vehicle being unpiloted is inherently less safe in terms of its own ability to reenter properly. So there is an issue there in that it's not crew-rated. It's a question of liability and safety. How safe is the Kistler vehicle versus something like the shuttle?" he said.

"Australian outback has a lot more room in it than does California and Nevada," Kaplan said. "If it were me, personally, I probably would not allow any Kistler overflight of populated areas."

According to Kistler documents available on the firm’s website, a fleet of five K-1 vehicles and two dedicated launch sites can provide true launch-on-demand capability, and a high-launch capacity.

K-1 launch rates of one per week are projected. Each rocket would be capable of quick turnaround between flights and reuse up to 100 times.

But as for the premier flight of the K-1, no date has been set. "We’re not saying anything about schedule. As soon as we finish the financing, then we will have something to say," Lepore said.

K-1 rockets would be used to put constellations of communications satellites around the planet, EIJ's Smith said. "That’s how they’re trying to make a buck. And we know from past experience that these things, like the Iridium system, are not guaranteed financial successes," he said.

"We raise that question in the article: 'Who is responsible for all that orbiting abandoned space communication gear up there?'" Smith said.

Kistler is a commercial trucking company, he said. "This is not space exploration...not the glorious romance of exploring the outer parameters of space."