SpaceX facilities
[2] COO Gwynne Shotwell stated in 2014 that "we are expanding in all of our locations" and "you will end up seeing a lot of SpaceX launch sites in order to meet the future demand that we anticipate.
[4] SpaceX has indicated that, depending on market demand, it may need another commercial launch site in addition to the Texas location.
Renovations included installation of new liquid oxygen and kerosene tanks and construction of a hangar for rocket and payload preparation.
[11] In September 2016, the pad was damaged when a Falcon 9 rocket exploded during liquid oxygen loading in preparation for a hot-fire test.
[2][16] In December 2013, the GAO denied the protest and sided with NASA, which argued that the solicitation contains no preference on the use of the facility as multi-use or single-use.
[21] SpaceX is building a large Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF) just outside the perimeter of the existing launch pad in order to "house the Falcon [rockets] and associated hardware and payloads during processing.
[22] In February 2016, it was reported that the pad was completed and activated indicating it is ready for launches of Falcon 9 Full Thrust.
Further work was needed to support Falcon Heavy and crewed launches took over 60 days and occurred after Cape Canaveral LC-40 reopened.
In April 2018, SpaceX completed a draft environmental assessment for a new facility "that would include a booster processing hangar and launch control center on 67 acres (27 ha) of KSC property" to support a faster flight rate of "Falcon rockets, including processing of landed booster stages and recovered payload fairings for reuse.
In 2014, SpaceX indicated that the historic Florida launchpad LC-39A would not be large enough, and they planned to build a new site to accommodate the 9-meter-diameter (30 ft) rocket.
[26] The Starship is projected to be powered by 33 Raptor liquid oxygen/liquid methane engines producing approximately 72 MN (16,000,000 lbf) of thrust at liftoff.
During 2011–2014, SpaceX considered as many as seven potential locations around the country for a new private launch facility for orbital flights, including Alaska, California, Florida,[38] Texas, Virginia,[39] Georgia,[40] and Puerto Rico.
The FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation began a multi-year process to conduct an Environmental Impact Statement[42] and public hearings on the new launch site, which would be located in Cameron County, Texas.
Legislation was introduced in the Texas Legislature in early 2013 that would enable temporary closings of State beaches during launches, limit liability for noise and some other specific commercial spaceflight risks, while the legislature also considered a package of incentives to encourage SpaceX to locate at the Brownsville, Texas location.
[53] On December 12, 2024, SpaceX filed an official request to Cameron County authorities to have the site incorporated as a new city, named Starbase.
[57] Since then, the FAA Environmental Impact Report of May 2014 lists this site as non-operational and returned to its original state, to no longer be used, "Five Falcon 1 launches occurred at Omelek Island, Kwajalein Atoll.
Every rocket engine and thruster manufactured by SpaceX must pass through McGregor for rigorous final testing, ensuring their reliability and performance before being used on flight missions.
[62] In addition to engine testing, after splashdown and recovery, Dragon spacecraft make a stop at McGregor to have their dangerous hypergolic propellant fuels removed, before the capsules continue on to Hawthorne for refurbishment.
In its early days, SpaceX reused many of the leftover facilities from the previous occupants of the site to test its first Merlin engines, but over time it has undergone significant expansion and improvements.
The new facility is expected to produce 800 to 1,000 rocket engines per year, approximately 2 to 4 each day, significantly expanding SpaceX's production capacity.
[73][74] As of May 2013[update], SpaceX indicated that they did not yet know how many jobs would move from McGregor, Texas to New Mexico to support the second phase of VTVL Grasshopper testing.
[80] On 19 February 2015, SpaceX announced that the F9R Dev2 would be discontinued indicating that ocean tests using operational Falcon 9 rockets were sufficiently successful that it was no longer necessary.
[citation needed] During April 2015, SpaceX performed tanking tests on the In-Flight Abort rocket on the Vandenberg Space Force Base SLC-4E.
Since this rocket only possessed three Merlin 1D engines, it was speculated that the discontinued F9R Dev2 was re-purposed as the launch vehicle in the In-Flight Abort Test.
