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In the competition for who gets the big SpaceX commercial spaceport and the large diameter rocket core factory** -
The proposed Boca Chica, Texas site has passed its FAA environmental impact evaluation. The state of Texas has passed the needed changes to its beach closing laws and it's on its way to Gov. Perry for his signature.
Georgia has yet to even choose its environmental impact analysis team.
Florida's Space Florida agency and KSC are still having a turf war over the Shiloh site.
The announcement is supposedly in September, and Texas is presumed to have a big lead plus it's in the same state as their McGregor, Texas test site.
** it is now known that SpaceX will be building a new factory near the spaceport for rockets even larger than Falcon Heavy. In 2010 they presented an AIAA paper on propulsion systems that showed concepts named Falcon X and Falcon XX, both super-heavy class boosters lofting from 100 to 150+ metric tons. Some rumors put Falcon XX at >200 metric tons. Saturn V could loft ~112 metric tons.
Falcon X / Falcon XX would most likely be barged to KSC for launch using one of the Saturn V / Shuttle pads..
Since then they have confirmed rocket cores >7 meters in diameter (F9 = 3.66m), the Raptor staged combustion methane fueled engine with 650,000 lbf of thrust (Merlin 1D = 147,000 lbf), and the mysteriously named and still "black" MCT project.
The below composited image shows a 6' tall man compared to the original Falcon 1 testbed, Falcon 9 1.0 (first 5 flights), Falcon 9 v1.1 (maiden flight in July), Falcon Heavy, and the 2010 AIAA presentations images of Falcon X and Falcon XX.
The proposed Boca Chica, Texas site has passed its FAA environmental impact evaluation. The state of Texas has passed the needed changes to its beach closing laws and it's on its way to Gov. Perry for his signature.
Georgia has yet to even choose its environmental impact analysis team.
Florida's Space Florida agency and KSC are still having a turf war over the Shiloh site.
The announcement is supposedly in September, and Texas is presumed to have a big lead plus it's in the same state as their McGregor, Texas test site.
** it is now known that SpaceX will be building a new factory near the spaceport for rockets even larger than Falcon Heavy. In 2010 they presented an AIAA paper on propulsion systems that showed concepts named Falcon X and Falcon XX, both super-heavy class boosters lofting from 100 to 150+ metric tons. Some rumors put Falcon XX at >200 metric tons. Saturn V could loft ~112 metric tons.
Falcon X / Falcon XX would most likely be barged to KSC for launch using one of the Saturn V / Shuttle pads..
Since then they have confirmed rocket cores >7 meters in diameter (F9 = 3.66m), the Raptor staged combustion methane fueled engine with 650,000 lbf of thrust (Merlin 1D = 147,000 lbf), and the mysteriously named and still "black" MCT project.
The below composited image shows a 6' tall man compared to the original Falcon 1 testbed, Falcon 9 1.0 (first 5 flights), Falcon 9 v1.1 (maiden flight in July), Falcon Heavy, and the 2010 AIAA presentations images of Falcon X and Falcon XX.