SpaceX gets approval to build research lab in Los Angeles where it will work on finishing construction of its massive Starship craft designed to take humans to Mars
- The facility will be a hub for designing and fabricating Starship parts
- Parts will then be shipped by barge to other locations owned by SpaceX
- Starship is still eyeing approval for a test flight in which it will fly 12-miles high
- CEO Elon Musk hopes that flight will take place later this year
Elon Musk’s private aerospace company, SpaceX, won final approval to build a research and manufacturing plant aimed at developing its deep-space Starship project on a plot of vacant land in Los Angeles.
On Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council granted a permit for the facility by a unanimous 12-0 vote, paving the way for Musk, also the founder of Tesla, his electric car company, to proceed with an accelerated development of a new spacecraft and rocket system designed to carry humans to the moon and Mars.
The L.A. Board of Harbor Commissioners gave its go-ahead to the 10-year permit last week.
Starship (pictured) has made leaps throughout the past year after successful test of its precursor, Starhopper. The company hopes to conduct a 12-mile-high test flight later this year
Operations at the facility will be confined to research, design and fabrication of aerospace components and space vehicles built there are not permitted for launch but will be transported out of the port complex by barge or ship.
The Los Angeles Port site will bring further Starship development closer to SpaceX’s headquarters in the L.A. suburb of Hawthorne, where it has manufactured its workhorse Falcon 9 rockets and Dragon crew capsules.
The future facility, which may incorporate renovations to abandoned warehouse and workshop structures on the site, is expected to provide 130 new jobs, according to Musk.
SpaceX has conducted test launches out of a facility on Boca Chica, Texas and has use Florida’s Cape Canaveral launch site for formal rocket launches.
In 2018, SpaceX secured a similar permit in Los Angeles but canceled it and moved its initial phase of the Starship project to Texas, where the company has developed and tested an early prototype dubbed Starhopper.
Earlier this month, evidence began circulating that SpaceX executives were inquiring about buying swaths of land near its Boca Chica facility.
Construction has continued at SpaceX’s facility in Boca Chica, Texas (pictured) where the company has conducted other critical test flights
Some residents in the area, however, refused to bite on SpaceX’s offers which proposed purchasing homes for more than three times the base appraisal rate. Some residents reportedly sought non-profit legal counsel on the matter.
With its new facility approved, SpaceX will come one step closer to bringing Starship to fruition.
As designed, the Starship itself is actually the top half of a colossal interplanetary rocket system that will stand 387 feet (118 meters) tall and be capable of ferrying dozens of humans to the moon and Mars in a single launch.
Musk has said that he hopes the Starship will be ready for its first orbital test flight later this year.
In a formal request in September, SpaceX requested permission to fly Starship more than 12 miles into orbit and then land the craft back down in the same spot.
The feat would mark a significant leap for the company, which recently completed a successful series of tests on Starship prototype, Starhopper, and gives new insight into just how close the company is to completing the vehicle.