Mayor says SpaceX to build new rocket in Port of Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (AP) — SpaceX has chosen to manufacture its planned big, new rocket in the Port of Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Monday in his annual state-of-the city speech.

The mayor said it's a "vehicle that holds the promise of taking humanity even deeper into the cosmos than ever before."

The city Board of Harbor Commissioners will vote Thursday on whether to lease 19 acres to SpaceX for the manufacturing site. The commission's staff has recommended approval of an initial 10-year term, with two 10-year options, at an annual rent of approximately $1.38 million.

While SpaceX calls its existing rockets Falcons, CEO Elon Musk simply refers to the planned new rocket as the BFR.

It's intended to serve all purposes, from missions into Earth orbit and out to the moon and Mars. Musk has said he aspires to launch his first cargo missions to Mars in 2022.

Musk also proposes to use the BFR for high-speed trips from point-to-point on Earth, such as New York to Shanghai in 39 minutes.

SpaceX, based in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne, already uses the Port of Los Angeles for missions that recover Falcon 9 first-stage boosters on a floating platform in the Pacific and when it recovers supply capsules that parachute into the ocean after missions to the international space station.

"SpaceX has called the Port of Los Angeles home to our west coast recovery operations since 2012 and we truly appreciate the City of Los Angeles' continued partnership," Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX president and COO, said in a statement.

"As announced today by Mayor Garcetti, the Port will play an increasingly important role in our mission to help make humanity multi-planetary as SpaceX begins production development of BFR — our next generation rocket and spaceship system capable of carrying crew and cargo to the Moon, Mars and beyond."

The agenda for this week's Harbor Commission meeting says the SpaceX's new operation in the port would be a research, design and manufacturing facility for rockets and spacecraft.

"The rockets, once complete, would be too large for reasonable transport by road and thus must be transported by barge or ship, necessitating that the facility be water adjacent," it says.

The facility would have potential to employ 700 people.

Associated Press writer Michael R. Blood contributed to this report.</s>Mayor says SpaceX to build new rocket in Port of Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (AP) — SpaceX has chosen to manufacture its planned big, new rocket in the Port of Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Monday in his annual state-of-the city speech.

The mayor said it's a "vehicle that holds the promise of taking humanity even deeper into the cosmos than ever before."

The city Board of Harbor Commissioners will vote Thursday on whether to lease 19 acres to SpaceX for the manufacturing site. The commission's staff has recommended approval of an initial 10-year term, with two 10-year options, at an annual rent of approximately $1.38 million.

While SpaceX calls its existing rockets Falcons, CEO Elon Musk simply refers to the planned new rocket as the BFR.

It's intended to serve all purposes, from missions into Earth orbit and out to the moon and Mars. Musk has said he aspires to launch his first cargo missions to Mars in 2022.

Musk also proposes to use the BFR for high-speed trips from point-to-point on Earth, such as New York to Shanghai in 39 minutes.

SpaceX, based in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne, already uses the Port of Los Angeles for missions that recover Falcon 9 first-stage boosters on a floating platform in the Pacific and when it recovers supply capsules that parachute into the ocean after missions to the international space station.

"SpaceX has called the Port of Los Angeles home to our west coast recovery operations since 2012 and we truly appreciate the City of Los Angeles' continued partnership," Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX president and COO, said in a statement.

"As announced today by Mayor Garcetti, the Port will play an increasingly important role in our mission to help make humanity multi-planetary as SpaceX begins production development of BFR — our next generation rocket and spaceship system capable of carrying crew and cargo to the Moon, Mars and beyond."

The agenda for this week's Harbor Commission meeting says the SpaceX's new operation in the port would be a research, design and manufacturing facility for rockets and spacecraft.

"The rockets, once complete, would be too large for reasonable transport by road and thus must be transported by barge or ship, necessitating that the facility be water adjacent," it says.

The facility would have potential to employ 700 people.

Associated Press writer Michael R. Blood contributed to this report.</s>Plans to build a SpaceX rocket manufacturing facility in the Port of Los Angeles are moving closer to reality.

On Thursday, the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners will consider leasing an 18-acre site on Terminal Island to the Hawthorne-based company for a plant to build rockets so massive they must be moved by water, according to a meeting agenda.

SpaceX would pay the port an initial, annual rent of $1.38 million to use the historic, former Southwest Marine Shipyard, and the 10-year lease has up to two 10-year extensions.

Both SpaceX and the port confirmed early negotiations last month, but wouldn’t provide further details about what will be built there. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti was expected to announce the lease Monday at his State of the City speech.

Descriptions in planning documents have led many to believe the plant will produce SpaceX’s future deep-space rocket, the BFR. The 4,400-ton spacecraft will be the largest rocket ever built, capable of carrying 150 tons and powered by 31 Raptor engines.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk has said the BFR — which stands for Big Falcon Rocket — will be used for missions to Mars and to fly people around the Earth in record-time.

Last week, Musk shared a photo of a massive manufacturing tool for the BFR, parking a Tesla Model 3 beside it for scale.

According to plans reviewed by the Harbor Commission in March, SpaceX would build a 105-foot-tall, 203,450-square-foot building on the vacant site, which is today used mostly for film shoots. It would accommodate up to 750 workers daily, according to plans.

The facility would be used “to design, develop, and manufacture prototypes and first-generation models of specialized commercial transportation vessels,” according to a project description.

SpaceX already uses 8.1 acres in San Pedro’s Outer Harbor to dock drone ships that bring in rocket boosters after they return from orbital missions so they can be refurbished and flown again.

The port is also home to Mr. Steven, a ship SpaceX is experimenting with to try to catch rocket fairings in a giant net supported by the ship’s claws.

The $6 million nose cones protect a rocket’s payload. SpaceX wants to make them reusable, too, to reduce costs.

Mr. Steven has been deployed twice so far, but hasn’t succeeded in making a catch.

The boat was seen entering the port two weeks ago with half of a fairing that delivered 10 communication satellites into orbit from Vandenberg Air Force Base.

The fairing missed Mr. Steven because its parafoil became twisted, but it landed in the ocean intact, Musk explained on Twitter.

Los Angeles Councilman Joe Buscaino, who represents the Harbor Area, said Musk is “the modern day Nikola Tesla, Henry Ford and Leonardo DaVinci all in one.”

“The fact that he has made so much progress in such a short amount of time with not only SpaceX but Tesla, Solar City and now the Boring Company, gives us lots of promise for the future of the LA Waterfront as an innovation district in Los Angeles,” Buscaino said in a statement. “With AltaSea, and now SpaceX, San Pedro is the new home to both space and sea exploration.”

SpaceX is set to launch a Falcon 9 rocket Monday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. The rocket maker is preparing to roll out the newest version of Falcon 9, the Block 5, next month.

A record 30 launches are planned for 2018, including SpaceX’s first crewed mission at the end of the year.</s>Mayor says SpaceX to build new rocket in Port of Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (AP) — SpaceX has chosen to manufacture its planned big, new rocket in the Port of Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Monday in his annual state-of-the city speech.

The mayor said it's a "vehicle that holds the promise of taking humanity even deeper into the cosmos than ever before."

The city Board of Harbor Commissioners will vote Thursday on whether to lease 19 acres to SpaceX for the manufacturing site. The commission's staff has recommended approval of an initial 10-year term, with two 10-year options, at an annual rent of approximately $1.38 million.

While SpaceX calls its existing rockets Falcons, CEO Elon Musk simply refers to the planned new rocket as the BFR.

It's intended to serve all purposes, from missions into Earth orbit and out to the moon and Mars. Musk has said he aspires to launch his first cargo missions to Mars in 2022.

Musk also proposes to use the BFR for high-speed trips from point-to-point on Earth, such as New York to Shanghai in 39 minutes.

SpaceX, based in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne, already uses the Port of Los Angeles for missions that recover Falcon 9 first-stage boosters on a floating platform in the Pacific and when it recovers supply capsules that parachute into the ocean after missions to the international space station.

"SpaceX has called the Port of Los Angeles home to our west coast recovery operations since 2012 and we truly appreciate the City of Los Angeles' continued partnership," Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX president and COO, said in a statement.

"As announced today by Mayor Garcetti, the Port will play an increasingly important role in our mission to help make humanity multi-planetary as SpaceX begins production development of BFR — our next generation rocket and spaceship system capable of carrying crew and cargo to the Moon, Mars and beyond."

The agenda for this week's Harbor Commission meeting says the SpaceX's new operation in the port would be a research, design and manufacturing facility for rockets and spacecraft.

"The rockets, once complete, would be too large for reasonable transport by road and thus must be transported by barge or ship, necessitating that the facility be water adjacent," it says.

The facility would have potential to employ 700 people.

Associated Press writer Michael R. Blood contributed to this report.</s>
• Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti gave his annual "State of the City" speech on Monday.
• During the speech, Garcetti announced that SpaceX will build Big Falcon Rocket ships for Mars in the Port of Los Angeles.
• SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk, applied for permission to build a 200,000-square-foot factory at the site, called Berth 240.
• It seems inevitable the rocket company will win approval and begin construction on its Mars spaceships.



It's hard to imagine where in Los Angeles, a crowded city of four million people, that you might build a spacecraft taller than the Statue of Liberty and capable of colonizing Mars.

But during an annual speech on Monday, Mayor Eric Garcetti said SpaceX, the rocket company founded by tech mogul Elon Musk, is about to do just that.

"If this year has taught us anything, it is to think big — to go after something unreachable. We have the confidence to look up to the stars, and the guts to realize our dreams," Garcetti said during a live broadcast.

"Today, I am pleased to officially announce that SpaceX will start production development of the Big Falcon Rocket in the Port of Los Angeles. This is a vehicle that holds the promise of taking humanity even deeper into the cosmos than ever before."

The Big Falcon Rocket or (as Musk likes to call it) the Big F---ing Rocket, is a two-part launch vehicle designed to carry 100 people and 150 tons of cargo into space.

A 19-story booster on the bottom will help rocket a 16-story spaceship on top into orbit, according to the most recent designs shared by Musk.

The vehicle is designed to burn liquid methane, since the fuel could be manufactured on many planets and moons in the solar system, including Mars.

What's more, it's intended to be fully reusable and quickly refuel-able.

If Musk and SpaceX succeed in building it, it could upend the entire rocket industry on Earth due to its presumable low cost (much like the relatively low cost of booking a flight around the world inside a reusable jet airplane).

SpaceX manufactures most of its rocket parts at the company's headquarters in Hawthorne, California, which is within LA city limits.

But the scale of BFR demanded by Musk is immense — end to end, a completed rocketship may stretch more than 348 feet tall — so SpaceX began scouting a new location, and one that wouldn't be too far from thousands of employees.

Public documents show SpaceX ultimately asked for permission to lease a site called Berth 240 at the Port of Los Angeles, which is about 14 miles south of Hawthorne.

SpaceX needs approval from the port's Board of Harbor Commissioners, though, because it wants to build a 200,000-square-foot Mars rocketship factory on a historic site. (The berth was used after World War II to build Victory ships that helped bring US soldiers home.)

Computer renderings of the building's design suggest the company will load spaceship and booster segments onto barges and ship them to Texas, where SpaceX has both a launchpad and rocket-testing-and-development facility.



Prior to Garcetti's announcement, it was uncertain whether or not SpaceX would get the lease it wanted. The mayor's announcement now dispels any doubt that SpaceX has secured permission, and SpaceX's pending influx of half a billion dollars could be a boon to the city.

"This isn't just about reaching into the heavens," Garcetti said. "It's about creating jobs right here on Earth."

In a statement emailed to Business Insider, Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's president, noted how the company has worked in the port since 2012 as part of its Falcon 9 rocket-booster-recovery operations.

"As announced today by Mayor Garcetti, the Port will play an increasingly important role in our mission to help make humanity multi-planetary as SpaceX begins production development of BFR," Shotwell said. "[O]ur next generation rocket and spaceship system capable of carrying crew and cargo to the Moon, Mars and beyond."

The Harbor Commission is expected to approve the final lease agreement on Thursday.

SpaceX doesn't appear to be waiting for the board's imminent approval.

The company has erected a roughly 20,000-square-foot tent on a berth that SpaceX already leases from the port. And inside, according to an image shared by Musk and photos obtained by Teslarati, the company is amassing tools to build carbon-fiber-composite frames for the BFR.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to Business Insider's questions about the machinery, its purpose, and the schedule for BFR fabrication.

But Musk has said publicly his company has started work on the BFR's spaceship — what he considers the most challenging piece to build — and start "short hopper flights" by early 2019 in McGregor, Texas.

Assuming the spaceship doesn't explode during initial testing, SpaceX will begin work on the booster.

Musk said late last year that his "aspirational" timeline for a first BFR launch to Mars will happen 2022, followed by the first crewed mission in 2024.

But Shotwell said at the 2018 TED conference on Wednesday that she "might out-vision Elon" with her goals for the BFR.

"Mars is fine, but it's a fixer-upper planet," Shotwell said. "I want to find people, or whatever they call themselves, in another solar system."

This story was updated with new information. It was originally published at 2:45 p.m. EDT on April 16, 2018.</s>The mayor of Los Angeles confirmed earlier reports that SpaceX will build its largest rocket, the BFR, at the Port of Los Angeles. The company intends to build a manufacturing facility on an 18-acre site at Berth 240 and use waterways to transport the massive rocket. SpaceX says the BFR is simply too big to be transported by roads.

Announced last September SpaceX intends for the reusable BFR to eventually replace its Falcon 9 and Falcon 9 Heavy rockets. It could eventually ferry humanity to Mars or used for point-to-point transportation on Earth.

“As announced today by Mayor Garcetti, the Port will play an increasingly important role in our mission to help make humanity multi-planetary as SpaceX begins production development of BFR — our next generation rocket and spaceship system capable of carrying crew and cargo to the Moon, Mars and beyond.” Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX president and COO, said in a statement.

SpaceX has used the port for its west coast recovery operations since 2012. There were widespread reports that the company was looking to drastically expand its operations at the location. This announcement confirms those reports.

The Los Angeles Harbor Commission must now approve the facility. If given the green light, SpaceX says it has the potential of employing 700 people.</s>LOS ANGELES (AP) — SpaceX has chosen to manufacture its planned big, new rocket in the Port of Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Monday in his annual state-of-the city speech.

The mayor said it's a "vehicle that holds the promise of taking humanity even deeper into the cosmos than ever before."

The city Board of Harbor Commissioners will vote Thursday on whether to lease 19 acres to SpaceX for the manufacturing site. The commission's staff has recommended approval of an initial 10-year term, with two 10-year options, at an annual rent of approximately $1.38 million.

While SpaceX calls its existing rockets Falcons, CEO Elon Musk simply refers to the planned new rocket as the BFR.

It's intended to serve all purposes, from missions into Earth orbit and out to the moon and Mars. Musk has said he aspires to launch his first cargo missions to Mars in 2022.

Musk also proposes to use the BFR for high-speed trips from point-to-point on Earth, such as New York to Shanghai in 39 minutes.

SpaceX, based in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne, already uses the Port of Los Angeles for missions that recover Falcon 9 first-stage boosters on a floating platform in the Pacific and when it recovers supply capsules that parachute into the ocean after missions to the international space station.

"SpaceX has called the Port of Los Angeles home to our west coast recovery operations since 2012 and we truly appreciate the City of Los Angeles' continued partnership," Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX president and COO, said in a statement.

"As announced today by Mayor Garcetti, the Port will play an increasingly important role in our mission to help make humanity multi-planetary as SpaceX begins production development of BFR — our next generation rocket and spaceship system capable of carrying crew and cargo to the Moon, Mars and beyond."

The agenda for this week's Harbor Commission meeting says the SpaceX's new operation in the port would be a research, design and manufacturing facility for rockets and spacecraft.

"The rockets, once complete, would be too large for reasonable transport by road and thus must be transported by barge or ship, necessitating that the facility be water adjacent," it says.

The facility would have potential to employ 700 people.

Associated Press writer Michael R. Blood contributed to this report.</s>SpaceX plans to open up shop at the Port of Los Angeles where it’ll work on research, design and development of its Mars rocket.

Los Angeles officials said Monday that a tentative lease agreement would allow SpaceX to take over a dormant building at the port in a move that could bring as any as 700 jobs to the area.

The deal is expected to be approved by board of harbor commissioners on Thursday.

SpaceX won’t have to pay rent for the facility for more than two decades. It will get more than $40 million in rent credits for renovating and upgrading the facility, which has been vacant since 2005. The company will not receive any subsidies from the city.

The Big Falcon Rocket is at the heart of CEO Elon Musk’s plan to settle a colony of humans on Mars.

Musk said in February that SpaceX will soon go all-in on the bold idea and begin dedicating its engineering talent to developing the BFR.

His remarks came after SpaceX aced the inaugural flight of the Falcon Heavy, which became the most powerful rocket currently in operation.

Musk said the Falcon Heavy’s success gave him “a lot of confidence we can make the BFR design work.”

The BFR consists of two major parts: The bottom rocket booster, which is designed to hoist the top portion, a towering spaceship, out of the Earth’s atmosphere.

Musk also has some Earth-based plans for just the spaceship: carting humans around the planet at breakneck speeds. He said the craft will be able to fly people from New York to Shanghai in half an hour.

At the SXSW conference in Austin last month, Musk said construction of the first BFR spaceship was already under construction.

“We are building the first ship, or interplanetary ship, right now,” he said. “And we’ll probably be able to do short flights, short up and down flights, during the first half of next year.”

And last week, he gave the public its first glimpse of some BFR parts in an Instagram post.

The deal with the Port of Los Angles will give SpaceX up to 200,000 more square feet to work with.

Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operation officer at SpaceX, said in a statement Monday that the port will “play an increasingly important role in our mission.”

And there’s a practical reason for setting up a seaside construction facility for BFR.

“The rockets, once complete, would be too large for responsible transport by road and thus must be transported by barge or ship,” according to the resolution that will go before the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners.

SpaceX also has plans for a waterfront launch site in the small village of Boca Chica, Texas.</s>SpaceX plans a rocket and spaceship facility at the Port of Los Angeles that will help advance founder Elon Musk’s goal of making missions to Mars by 2022.

The private space company plans to build a system called “BFR” — short for Big Falcon Rocket — at the facility. BFR will only be movable by barge or ship, necessitating a port location. SpaceX is headquartered in a Los Angeles suburb and the company already uses the port in other missions.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti gave the news at his annual State of the City address Monday.

“This is a vehicle that holds the promise of taking humanity deeper into the cosmos than ever before," Garcetti said in the speech. "And this isn’t just about reaching into the heavens. It’s about creating jobs right here on Earth.”

The facility could create as many as 700 jobs, according to SpaceX. Musk presented plans for BFR last fall, saying the new rocket would replace others known as Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Dragon. The company’s website says BFR could be used for cargo trips and the eventual colonization of life on Mars, as well for high-speed travel on Earth.

“SpaceX has called the Port of Los Angeles home to our West Coast recovery operations since 2012 and we truly appreciate the City of Los Angeles’ continued partnership,” said SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell in a statement emailed to USA Today.

The Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners will vote on whether to approve a 19-acre lease on Thursday. According to the meeting agenda for that vote, SpaceX seeks a 10-year lease with two 10-year options to extend. The rent would be almost $1.4 million per year initially.

City Councilman Joe Buscaino, who represents San Pedro and the neighboring harbor area, is an advocate for the project, which he said would propel the waterfront community "to the brightest future it's ever seen."

Buscaino said he can envision SpaceX workers commuting via ferry and bike. Perhaps even Musk himself would move in, he said.

Because members of the Board of Harbor Commissioners are appointed by the Mayor, Buscaino said he's confident the plan will be approved Thursday. It would then be sent to the Trade, Travel and Tourism Committee, which Buscaino chairs, and would get a final vote from the city council.

“This agreement...would allow the Port of Los Angeles to further build on the science and technology job clusters that have been envisioned at our port and public waterfront," said the port’s executive director Gene Seroka in a statement emailed to USA Today.

The port is also home to a marine research lab called AltaSea, which is partnered with ocean conservation efforts at Catalina Sea Ranch and The Boeing Company. With those developments, North America's busiest cargo port seems to be moving toward a science- and tech-focused future.

"With AltaSea at the Port of Los Angeles, and now SpaceX, San Pedro is the new home to both space and sea exploration," Buscaino said.</s>Mayor says SpaceX to build new rocket in Port of Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (AP) — SpaceX has chosen to manufacture its planned big, new rocket in the Port of Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Monday in his annual state-of-the city speech.

The mayor said it's a "vehicle that holds the promise of taking humanity even deeper into the cosmos than ever before."

The city Board of Harbor Commissioners will vote Thursday on whether to lease 19 acres to SpaceX for the manufacturing site. The commission's staff has recommended approval of an initial 10-year term, with two 10-year options, at an annual rent of approximately $1.38 million.

While SpaceX calls its existing rockets Falcons, CEO Elon Musk simply refers to the planned new rocket as the BFR.

It's intended to serve all purposes, from missions into Earth orbit and out to the moon and Mars. Musk has said he aspires to launch his first cargo missions to Mars in 2022.

Musk also proposes to use the BFR for high-speed trips from point-to-point on Earth, such as New York to Shanghai in 39 minutes.

SpaceX, based in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne, already uses the Port of Los Angeles for missions that recover Falcon 9 first-stage boosters on a floating platform in the Pacific and when it recovers supply capsules that parachute into the ocean after missions to the international space station.

"SpaceX has called the Port of Los Angeles home to our west coast recovery operations since 2012 and we truly appreciate the City of Los Angeles' continued partnership," Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX president and COO, said in a statement.

"As announced today by Mayor Garcetti, the Port will play an increasingly important role in our mission to help make humanity multi-planetary as SpaceX begins production development of BFR — our next generation rocket and spaceship system capable of carrying crew and cargo to the Moon, Mars and beyond."

The agenda for this week's Harbor Commission meeting says the SpaceX's new operation in the port would be a research, design and manufacturing facility for rockets and spacecraft.

"The rockets, once complete, would be too large for reasonable transport by road and thus must be transported by barge or ship, necessitating that the facility be water adjacent," it says.

The facility would have potential to employ 700 people.

Associated Press writer Michael R. Blood contributed to this report.
In Los Angeles, SpaceX announced that they will build a massive rocket named BFR capable of sending humans to Mars.