SpaceX to expand Florida base
June 13, 2018
By Chris Forrester
Florida Today report that rocket launch company SpaceX will increase the size of its planned facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre in the state.
A NASA-generated environmental study on the scheme says that the facility will be used to support a much higher launch rate of SpaceX’s Falcon rockets including the recovered stages and payload fairings for refurbishing.
The report says the facility will be used to support the expanding launch manifest taking place at Launch Complexes 39A and 40 at Cape Canaveral. The document talks specifically of handling up to 54 landings a year, either directly at the Cape or at SpaceX’s floating barge.
Part of the new facility is a new control centre. “The launch control center is envisioned to be world-class, architecturally distinctive, and equipped for satellite, cargo, and crew missions,” says NASA’s document.
However, the document only talks of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon ‘Heavy’ rockets, and makes no mention of the proposed Falcon BFR ‘Mars Mission’ project. SpaceX founder Elon Musk has previously said that his ‘BFR’ rocket would initially be handled from a new launch site under construction in Texas.