SpaceX California BFR (Mars rocket) factory site approved (construction greenlighted)

[Dr Mordrid]

And here it comes....

A second BFR factory at Cape Canaveral near the Visitors Center is being negotiated. Parties: SpaceX, the state of Florida and the USAF.

This is not where the first BFR Spaceships are now being built but a much larger factory measuring about 18,859.32 m2/203,000 ft2 and 32 meters/105 ft tall, which is a bit high for the current 9 meter/30 foot core - fuelling speculation that the larger 2016 12 meter/39.33 foot diameter BFR may return later. 750 employees, about 16-18 months construction.

Bethlehem Shipyard Historic District

Terminal Island

Google Maps....

LA BFR factory: WW Marine Composites (a SpaceX subsidiary)

Product: "commercial transportation vessels"

The property manager's LinkedIn says:

WW Marine Redevelopment Project
Starting January 2017.

I was involved in negotiations with WW Marine Composites, LLC (WWM) on a 40-year ground lease for the repurposing and redevelopment of the vacant 17-acre former Southwest Marine site located on Terminal Island.

WWM develops advanced rockets and spacecraft. The WWM proposal includes the development of a high tech R&D facility to design, develop, and manufacture prototypes and first-generation models of space transportation vessels for exploration. The vessels, once completed, will be too large for delivery by road or rail and must be transported via barge, necessitating the proposed facility to be located adjacent to the water. The proposed project will put a major piece of underutilized LA Port property (vacant since 2002) back into useful service and provide the LA Port with a tenant, who will make a $42 million capital investment, as well as improvements, to the property along Berth 240Z and Y and a portion of Berth 240X.

https://www.portoflosangeles.org/Boa...nda_Item_7.pdf

The proposed Project involves the issuance of a 10-year Lease (with up to two 10-year lease extension/renewal options) for the construction and operation of a facility to manufacture large commercial transportation vessels at Berth 240 off Seaside Avenue on Terminal Island. The approximately 18-acre proposed Project site includes portions of the former Southwest Marine site. The site is entirely disturbed with abandoned industrial buildings, unused compacted dirt area, and paved areas. Operation would involve research and development of transportation vessels and would likely include general manufacturing procedures such as welding, composite curing, cleaning, painting, and assembly operations. The majority of operations would take place inside the facility, with exterior operations limited to transit of vehicles, forklift traffic, and mobilization of manufactured products onto a barge at the dockside for testing and delivery. Finished vessels would need to be transported via water due to their size; thus there is the need to locate the facility immediately adjacent to the water. In addition, the lease would accommodate recovery operations undertaken by Space Exploration Technologies to bring to shore vehicles returning from space that are retrieved by an autonomous drone ship offshore.

Visiting ISS

LA BFR factory location

[Dr Mordrid]

The construction clock is running.

https://www.teslarati.com/spacexs-first-bfr-manufacturing-facility-approved-long-beach-port-la-photos/

SpaceX’s first BFR manufacturing facility approved by the Port of LA
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On March 15, around a week after the environmental impact assessment gave a green light for SpaceX’s facility, Port of Los Angeles’ Board of Harbor Commissioners approved the proposal, effectively giving SpaceX permission to begin serious demolition and construction activities at Berth 240, an abandoned lot located on the San Pedro side of the greater Port of Los Angeles, which refers to both Ports of San Pedro and Long Beach. To provide context, SpaceX’s primary manufacturing facilities in Hawthorne, CA occupy 10-15 acres of urban real estate – in other words, even partial development of Berth 240’s 18 acres would mark a huge expansion of the company’s available manufacturing and refurbishment space, an absolute necessity for the construction of a launch vehicle as large as BFR.

The construction of such a facility would make it significantly easier for SpaceX to build its first BFR/BFS prototypes, avoiding the massive disruption and cost that transporting the 9m-diameter vehicle through downtown LA. Rather than dealing with that nightmare, SpaceX would instead be able to simply crane an assembled booster or spaceship onto a barge (perhaps a drone ship?) that would then ship the rocket hardware through the Panama Canal to the company’s facilities in Cape Canaveral, FL or Boca Chica, TX.
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