Hawthorne-based SpaceX, which is working through a backlog of rocket launches, wants to double the space it leases at the Port of Los Angeles to park and handle recovered space equipment.
The Board of Harbor Commissioners will vote at its Thursday morning meeting on a deal to enlarge Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s footprint at San Pedro’s outer harbor. The company hopes to lease 4.6 acres of land and water area along Berths 51 to 53 for $23,735 a month, plus insurance and any incidental costs.
In addition to extra space, the lease agreement allows the company to have berthing rights, install a chain-link fence around the property, build a concrete rocket-support pedestal, and add an office trailer, guard shack and portable restrooms, according to a staff report prepared for the commission.
The cutting-edge Hawthorne rocket maker, founded by billionaire CEO Elon Musk, is the first private company to ever return spacecraft from missions intact. It’s working to rapidly reduce the cost of getting into orbit by building reusable equipment. Already, its launch costs are several times cheaper than those of legacy aerospace companies that held a monopoly on government contracts until SpaceX snagged its first NASA deal in 2014.
Original lease for 2 acres
Last year, SpaceX entered into its first contract to park equipment at the port in San Pedro. It leased about 2 acres to store the specially made barge it uses to recover launched rockets at sea. That vessel, which the company calls an “autonomous spaceport drone ship” named Just Read the Instructions, received the Falcon 9 rocket booster that delivered 10 communications satellites to Aresbet orbit on Jan. 14 from Vandenberg Air Force Base.
This was the seventh successful booster recovery for the company.
The 16-story-tall booster was then towed on its barge to the San Pedro parking space on Jan. 17, where it remained until Jan. 26 near Miner and 22nd streets, drawing daily crowds of gawkers.
If the Harbor Commission approves the company’s lease expansion, it will provide enough space and access to comfortably park and offload the massive equipment on a regular basis. SpaceX plans at least six launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base through 2018 that will require at-sea landings, which means San Pedro will be getting an eyeful of the company’s rockets.
Launches planned every 2 weeks
Though SpaceX’s launch manifest is not publicly available, company officials said they intend to launch every two weeks from bases in Florida and California.
The company’s next two launches are set to take place at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Most of its launches have been from Cape Canaveral, but a Sept. 1 rocket explosion destroyed the equipment and its launchpad.
The port parking spot actually is on the campus of AltaSea marine research facility. Boeing Co. is also working in partnership with AltaSea to lease space in the outer harbor that may be used for its unmanned submarine Echo Voyager.
Additionally, marine archeologist Robert Ballard, the scientist who discovered the sunken Titanic in 1985, parks his deep-sea exploration research vessel Nautilus along the AltaSea property.
Pioneering exploration
Los Angeles Councilman Joe Buscaino heralded the SpaceX expansion as the latest step in the region’s increasing transformation to being on the cutting edge of pioneering exploration.
“Along with Boeing, Catalina Sea Ranch and the Exploration Vehicle Nautilus, AltaSea and the Port of LA are the home of space exploration and underwater exploration,” Buscaino said in a written statement. “My hope is that Elon Musk continues to see AltaSea and the Port of Los Angeles as an asset to his operations and continues to grow his company’s presence in San Pedro.”
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