This artist’s rendering shows SpaceX’s proposed BFR rocket and spaceship system, which will be built at the Port of Los Angeles. (SpaceX)
BY STAS MARGARONIS
Space X, the Elon Musk company, will be building a new rocket factory at the Port of Los Angeles for rockets capable of travelling to Mars.
Space X (Space Exploration Technologies Corporation) chose the Port of Los Angeles because the rockets will be too large to transport by truck and will instead be transported by barge.
According to press reports, the rockets will be transported to the new Space X launch site at Boca Chica, Texas near Brownsville.
The Texas Monthly described the Boca Chica beach area as a gem along the Texas Gulf of Mexico coast: “A sandy eight-mile beach on a narrow spit of arid land between the Rio Grande delta and the salt flats of the lower Laguna Madre, Boca Chica is the alpha and omega of Texas—the place where a once mighty river spills into the mightier Gulf, where the U.S. ends and Mexico begins, and where the high-rises of South Padre Island give way to an untamed, undeveloped coast.”
Space X began development of the site in 2014. In 2017, SpaceX president and chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell was quoted as describing Boca Chica as the “perfect location for BFR.”
SpaceX has a rocket engine testing facility in McGregor, Texas and is building the launch site in Boca Chica, according to Shotwell. Earlier in 2018, she told reporters that the Boca Chica site will be ready late this year or early next year for early vehicle testing. SpaceX will then continue working toward making it a launch site, according to the Houston Chronicle.[1]
Artist rendering of the Space X Boca Chica, Texas launch site: source is Wikipedia[2]
This means new BFR rockets would need to be barged via the Panama Canal to Texas from the Port of Los Angeles.
The Port of Los Angeles manufacturing site selected by Space X is the old Southwest Marine shipyard.
During World War II, Bethlehem Shipyard built approximately 40 destroyers and employed 6,000 workers at the height of production. After the war, Bethlehem transitioned to ship repair and Navy oil tanker storage. In 1981, Bethlehem Steel sold the property to Southwest Marine, which continued ship-related activities at the site.
The Southwest Marine Site: Photo LA Conservancy
Space X says that it will create 700 jobs when the new manufacturing facility is operational. It will generate an initial annual $1.38 million in rent to the Port. Space X will pay for its own improvements based on a ten-year lease with two ten-year option extensions, according to the Port of Los Angeles.
Anthony Pirozzi a Los Angeles Harbor Commissioner noted that new rocket factory adds to the Port’s existing relationship with Space X: the company’s Falcon rockets return from space and land on a barge. The rockets are subsequently off-loaded at the Port of Los Angeles:
“I have been in this industry for 20 years and…. offloading (Space X) Falcon rockets is pretty exciting… This is an amazing opportunity for all of us…. The project solidifies our role as a space port.”
Pirozzi currently serves as the director of systems integration, test and launch organization at the Boeing Satellite Development Center.
Michael Di Bernardo, Deputy Executive Director for Marketing at the Port of Los Angeles explained some of the background site selection: “Space X approached us in late 2015 for a site to build rockets and the rockets would be very large which would not allow them to be moved the traditional way by truck and therefore they needed property with water access. We identified a parcel that lay fallow since 2005 that once housed the Southwest Marine shipyard.”
Bruce McHugh, Director of Construction and Real Estate for Space X gave some details about plans for the new rocket factory: “It’s an 80 ft tall building with no columns on the inside of the building. It’s a big hanger. It will end up being a 200,000 square foot building. I drove around all over the place…… and I found the perfect spot for us.”
He estimated that production and fabrication of the BFR rocket would begin in about two or three years. The spaceship and rocket combined would tower 340 feet above the ground. The BFR rocket with have a diameter of 35 feet.
The BFR will eventually replace SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket — which has a diameter of 12 feet. The BFR is key to Space X’s plans to travel to Mars and could also be used for missions to the moon.
Los Angeles Harbor Commissioner Ed Renwick noted: “We also have to plant the seeds for tomorrow, so we are bringing Space X to the Port of Los Angeles.”
[1] https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Aerospace-talent-in-Texas-lauded-12492604.php
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX_South_Texas_Launch_Site