The launch site was originally intended to support launches of the Falcon 9 In 2011, the company announced plans to upgrade the facility for launch testing a VTVL rocket, known as Grasshopper,[43] and then constructed a half-acre concrete launch facility in 2012 to support the test flight program. [2] All SpaceX rocket engines are tested on rocket test stands, and low-altitude VTVL flight testing of the Falcon 9 Grasshopper v1.0 test vehicle are done at McGregor. SpaceX originally intended to launch their first launch vehicle, the Falcon 1, from Space Launch Complex 3 West (SLC-3W) at Vandenberg Air Force Base. Wednesday's event took place on the 15th anniversary of SpaceX's first-ever launch. ", "Statement Of Gwynne Shotwell, President & Chief Operating Officer, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX)", "McGregor: City modifies SpaceX rocket testing rules", "SpaceX has shipped its Mars engine to Texas for tests", "SpaceX renovating former Falcon 9 test stand at McGregor", https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1183813898748563456, "SpaceX to test Grasshopper reusable booster at Spaceport America in NM", "SpaceX Joining Virgin Galactic at Spaceport America", "SpaceX moving Grasshopper testing to New Mexico", "SpaceX Leases Pad in New Mexico for Next Grasshopper Tests", "New Mexico's Spaceport America Eyes SpaceX, Virgin Galactic Flights", "New Mexico Legislators Look into Spaceport America Finances", "SpaceX bypassing replacement for lost Falcon 9R landing test vehicle", "SpaceX conducts tanking test on In-Flight Abort Falcon 9", "Texas, SpaceX announce spaceport deal near Brownsville", "SpaceX breaks ground at Boca Chica beach", "Proposed Shiloh launch complex at KSC debated in Volusia", "Sanchez: Texas offering $6M, Florida giving $10M", "FAA Notice of Intent to conduct an Environmental Impact Statement", "Brownsville area candidate for spaceport", "Texas reaches out to land spaceport deal with SpaceX", "SpaceX bought two former Valaris oil rigs to build floating launchpads for its Starship rocket", "SpaceX acquires former oil rigs to serve as floating Starship spaceports", "Elon Musk: 'SpaceX is building floating, superheavy-class spaceports' for its Starship rocket to reach the moon, Mars, and fly passengers around Earth", Commercial Orbital Transportation Services, SpaceX Mars transportation infrastructure, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=SpaceX_launch_facilities&oldid=1014682751, Pages with non-numeric formatnum arguments, Articles with dead external links from November 2017, Articles with permanently dead external links, Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2020, All articles containing potentially dated statements, Articles containing potentially dated statements from June 2016, Wikipedia articles in need of updating from November 2020, All Wikipedia articles in need of updating, All articles with vague or ambiguous time, Articles containing potentially dated statements from October 2012, Articles containing potentially dated statements from September 2013, Articles containing potentially dated statements from March 2015, Articles containing potentially dated statements from May 2013, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2017, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Chantilly, Houston, Seattle, Washington DC, This page was last edited on 28 March 2021, at 14:50. SpaceX is in the midst of preparing for back-to-back Falcon 9 launches from its two Florida pads, a feat that will also require two drone ships for each rocket booster to … In case of a problem … SpaceX's Texas launch site is located just west of Boca Chica Beach and Brazos Island. [40] Dragon spacecraft, following use on a space mission, splashdown and recovery, are shipped to McGregor for de-fueling, cleanup, and refurbishment for potential reuse in flight missions.[39]. [54], In 2013, SpaceX constructed a 30-by-30-meter (98 ft × 98 ft) pad at Spaceport America, 7 kilometers (4.3 mi) southwest of the spaceport's main campus, and will lease the pad for US$6,600 per month plus US$25,000 per Grasshopper flight. [38] Although SpaceX manufactures all of their rocket engines and thrusters at their Hawthorne headquarters, each must pass through McGregor where the company tests each new engine off of the assembly line as well as those being developed for future missions to orbit and beyond[39] before each one can be used on a flight mission. [citation needed], During April 2015, SpaceX performed tanking tests on the In-Flight Abort rocket on the Vandenberg Air Force Base SLC-4E. The first Falcon 9 rocket arrived at SLC-40 in late 2008, and was first erected on January 10, 2009. January 19, 2020 CREW DRAGON LAUNCH ESCAPE DEMONSTRATION Renovations included installation of new liquid oxygen and kerosene tanks and construction of a hangar for rocket and payload preparation. [42] With only three initial employees onsite, the facility grew to over 140 employees by late 2011. One potential shared user in the Blue Origin notional plan was with United Launch Alliance. [23] The first SpaceX launch from LC-39A occurred in February 2017, followed by a successful first-stage landing at Landing Zone 1. [21] SpaceX is building a large Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF) just outside the perimeter of the existing launch pad in order to "house the Falcon [rockets] and associated hardware and payloads during processing. [67] One of the proposed locations for the new commercial-mission-only spaceport was south Texas, which was revealed in April 2012, via preliminary regulatory documentation. The Falcon rockets will be transported from the HIF to the launch pad aboard a Transporter Erector (TE) which will ride on rails up the former crawlerway path. The sixth flight of the Falcon 9 launch vehicle launched in September 2013, which was the maiden flight of Falcon 9 v1.1. SpaceX operate a West Coast launch site located at Vandenberg Air Force Base Space Launch Complex 4 in order to deliver satellites to polar or Sun-synchronous orbits with Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches. [9] It successfully reached orbit on its maiden launch on June 4, 2010, carrying a dummy payload qualification unit. SpaceX has made a number of improvements to the facility since purchase, and has also extended the size of the facility by purchasing several pieces of adjacent farmland. [12] The pad was repaired and used for the first time since the explosion in the SpaceX CRS-13 mission in December 2017.
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