In statements provided to the Brownsville Herald, a Texan paper dedicated to a South Texas region that includes SpaceX’s Boca Chica launch site, state representative René Oliveira hinted that SpaceX’s plans for the region could go “well beyond conducting launches.”
SpaceX and South Texas
The Herald’s Steve Clark provided a great summary of the history between SpaceX and Texas in recent years, particularly related to the company’s efforts to construct a launch facility in the region. Aside from a considerable effort to create a sturdier foundation for the pad along the sandy, shifting shoreline of Boca Chica, Texas, the company’s work in the region has been rather quiet since the prospective pad’s announcement in 2014. Through a combination of tax incentives and a direct cash infusion, the state of Texas and the Rio Grande Valley region have both in some way strived to strengthen their relationships with SpaceX and solidify the iconic group’s presence in the region.
For Brownsville and Boca Chica, in particular, the latter of which has a population well under 100 individuals, SpaceX’s permanent presence would be a massive boom for the local economy by bringing an infusion of dozens or potentially hundreds of skilled, full-time positions to the quiet region.
In recent months, SpaceX has been very gradually progressing development of facilities around their potential launch site, albeit not the pad itself. These changes include a nearly complete public-private radio communications facility intended to both give college students hands-on experience and communicate with SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule as early as late 2018. Intriguingly, a Tesla energy installation has also been recently spotted at the facility.
Finally, a vast crane has been semi-permanently stationed on SpaceX property and had a corrugated shed build around it to protect it from the elements and SpaceX stalking fans in the region.
More than just a launch pad?
State Rep. Oliveira’s statements can be seen in full below.
“About a year ago, SpaceX came to me with their concept of a new, larger, expanded plan for Boca Chica Beach,” Oliveira said. “The concept went well beyond conducting launches, and would require new commitments for construction, investment and jobs to support the new operations.”
“We looked at the original plan for the launch site, and the chain of work that would be done inside and outside on the rockets that would take off from Boca Chica. The concept SpaceX is examining would bring a lot of that work to Boca Chica, going well beyond the original plan.”
He [State Rep. René Oliveira, D-Brownsville] declined to reveal the details of the new concept for Boca Chica, saying it’s up to SpaceX to detail its plans and associated costs when it makes a request to CCSDC to apply for funding.
The timing of SpaceX concept, reportedly presented to Oliveira in late 2016 or early 2017, strongly indicate that the rocket company is considering a considerable expansion of their aspirations for the South Texas facilities under construction. Partly based on Oliveira’s suggestion that SpaceX and Brownsville “looked at…the chain of work” necessary for rockets to launch Boca Chica, the most obvious conclusion available is that SpaceX is thinking about developing Boca Chica into a veritable rocket city.
A Falcon 9 conducts tests at SpaceX’s McGregor testing facility in central Texas. (SpaceX)
A major problem facing SpaceX’s Mars rocket (BFR) program is dealing with the vehicle’s sheer size, 9m (30 feet) in diameter and at least as tall as Falcon 9. This size would make transporting the vehicle cross-country by road all but impossible, potentially forcing the company to abandon a bulwark of their current Falcon manufacturing strategy. The most obvious solution, as discussed briefly by CEO Elon Musk and President Gwynne Shotwell, would be to build a rocket factory where the launch pad is located. Boca Chica is thus almost certainly a prime location under SpaceX’s consideration for both the launch complex and factory needed to build and operate BFR. And this argument has been strengthened in recent months by statements from both executives hinting that prototype BFR spaceship (BFS) tests could begin in South Texas as soon as early 2019.
To say that the creation of such a manufacturing and launch infrastructure would transform the region would be an understatement. The sheer shock value of a small city being able to lay claim to the only private orbital launch complex in the US would be valuable in its own right, not to mention the distinct possibility that such a facility might one day launch the first humans to Mars. If the educated speculation above is, in fact, the truth of the matter, SpaceX can be expected to begin earnestly petitioning the local and state governments for additional public funds to partially support the major undertaking. Most importantly, the company would almost certainly need to procure an updated or wholly new environmental impact assessment from the FAA before being allowed to begin construction beyond the scope of the original 2014 grant.
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Do you mean launch from a ship? It would certainly allow more options.
The rocket can be loaded on a ship and sent east to Cape Kennedy or west to Vandenberg AFB, or to any other launch facility on earth. I do not think that a ship launch will be practical any time soon, even though we see some barge landings.
Why not make the BFR near Vandenburg or Cape Kennedy and 'Fly it' to Tex for launch. Or anywhere else. That is a stated goal anyway.
Land to build on near Cape Kennedy and Vandenberg AFB is now expensive and in short supply. While SpaceX could build the BFR in their current factory *(and probably will for the first few) this would interfere with the production and refurbishment of Falcon 9 units, the current $$ money maker $$ for the company. Also, the BFR has 2 size formats with only the smaller {9-meter core diameter} being able to fit into the Falcon 9 factory production facility. The full size BFR units {12-meter core diameter} need their own factory somewhere, and Boca Chica, Texas is a top contender location as it has a great deal going for it {land, sea access, launch facility, skilled workers nearby}.
From Wikipedia: 'Launches on orbital trajectories from Brownsville will have a constrained flight path, due to the Caribbean Islands as well as the large number of Oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. SpaceX has stated that they have a good flight path available for the launching of satellites on trajectories toward the commercially valuable Geosynchronous orbit.[53]
Although SpaceX initial plans for the Boca Chica launch site are to loft robotic spacecraft to geosynchronous orbits, Elon Musk indicated in September 2014 that 'the first person to go to another planet could launch from [the Boca Chica launch site]',[54] but did not indicate which launch vehicle might be used for those launches, nor whether the ITS launch vehicle might launch from Texas even on uncrewed flights.'
The Texas launch site has a narrow launch corridor, which limits the orbits that can be reached. This means that the BFR would only be able to achieve near equatorial orbits,...
However, the coast is easily accessible, so rockets could be moved to alternate locations by ship in order to fill other orbits.
However, the coast is easily accessible, so rockets could be moved to alternate locations by ship in order to fill other orbits.
Do you mean launch from a ship? It would certainly allow more options.
There are two trajectories from Boca Chica, north and south of Cuba, 95° or 111°, this translates to 5° and 21° south of equatorial. So close enough north of Cuba for GTO (target 0°). Actually I don't think the 111° is suitable for anyone so I guess having this second option is a moot point. Other desirable angles are all more than 53° from the equator. These angles would require a launch off the coast of Louisiana.
