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Elon Musk Looking to Build a ‘Commercial Cape Canaveral’

Saturday, March 9, 2013 15:56

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(Before It's News)

AUSTIN, Texas — SpaceX founder and billionaire Elon Musk testified before the Texas House Appropriations Committee on Friday in support of his effort to build a commercial orbital launch facility in south Texas on the Gulf of Mexico.

The San Antonio Express News reported on the visit:

For months, SpaceX, a pioneer in the private space-flight industry, has eyed a location on Boca Chica Beach, 23 miles east of Brownsville, to construct a commercial launch pad capable of sending spacecraft into orbit.

Eventually, Musk told lawmakers Friday, the site could become the primary hub for company flights ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station and well-heeled tourists into the stars.

“We’re talking about something that’s really in the big leagues here,” he said. “We’re talking about the commercial version of Cape Canaveral.”

Other companies already operating in Texas include XCOR, which operates a facility in Midland, and Blue Origin, led by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, which runs a site near Van Horn.

read the entire Express News article

The Brownsville Herald reported:

The next SpaceX launch site will not only be a place to launch rockets: The company would eventually want a site nearby to build them as well.

Musk said the company will continue to build its Falcon 9 rockets in California, but when it begins manufacturing rockets larger than the Falcon 9, they would be built at or near the launch site.

“The logical thing is to build near the launch site,” he said. “That is something that will occur wherever the launch site occurs.”

“In the long term, our goal is actually to make dramatic improvements in the cost of space flights and to ultimately make it accessible to anyone who wants to go,” Musk said.

read the entire Herald article

Musk was in Austin last June when he met with Governor Rick Perry and filmed a cameo role in “Machete Kills”, the latest from director Robert Rodriguez.

Texas is but one of four sites SpaceX is considering, including Florida, Georgia and Puerto Rico. All three competitors have made attractive offers. The Texas lawmakers now have to decide how seriously they want to compete for the spaceport. Musk encouraged them, telling them “Right now, Texas is in the lead”.

SpaceX has been buying land near the proposed site for the past year. The Federal Aviation Administration is still conducting an environmental impact statement on the site.

Map of the proposed area:

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