[ad_1]
SpaceX will concentrate its most important activities not at its Los Angeles area headquarters but in its South Texas facilities, the company announced today. The development of its next-generation launchers, Starships and Super Heavy, will take place in Texas, while work on Falcon 9 and Dragon will remain in Hawthorne. L.A. Times first reported the news.
This decision is a source of trouble for workers at the Hawthorne, Calif. Plant, where much SpaceX work has been done so far – but this is not a surprise to those who have been watching closely. The layoffs announced last week, most of which are in Hawthorne, are logical given the company's move from development to the operation and maintenance of the Falcon 9 system.
Initial plans had been for SpaceX to build at least a portion of its Starship and Super Heavy kits at the Los Angeles harbor and test at the nearby Vandenberg airbase. But as it's clear from today's news, but from the real presence of the catchy steel hopper in Texas, this will no longer be the case.
SpaceX has proposed the following statement:
To streamline operations, SpaceX is developing and testing the Starship test vehicle at our site in South Texas. This decision has no impact on our current manufacturing, design and launch activities at Hawthorne and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. In addition, SpaceX will continue the recovery operations of our Falcon rockets and our reusable Dragon spacecraft at the Port of Los Angeles.
It's a sweet way to say that they will keep the old SpaceX equipment (but still very important and active) at Hawthorne, but put the rest of their eggs in the Texas basket.
Source link
