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from the somebody's-compensating-for-something dept.
The Mayor of Los Angeles has announced that SpaceX will begin production of the BFR at the port of Los Angeles:
SpaceX can start building its "Big Fucking Rocket," now that it has officially found a home in LA. Mayor Eric Garcetti has announced on Twitter that the private space giant "will start production development of the Big Falcon Rocket (the spacecraft's tamer name, apparently)" at the port of Los Angeles. SpaceX designed the 348-foot-long behemoth to fly humanity to the moon, Mars and beyond. It will be able to carry up to [150] tons in payload, whereas Falcon Heavy can only carry [63.8] tons. "This vehicle holds the promise of taking humanity deeper into the cosmos than ever before," he added, along with an illustration of the company's massive interplanetary spacecraft.
The massive cylindrical body of the BFR's fabrication mold has been photographed at a tent at the Port of San Pedro (compare to this earlier photo of the main body tool):
Finally, it's worth noting just how shockingly busy the BFR tent was on both April 13th and 14th, as well as the 8th (the first day Pauline visited the facility). With upwards of 40 cars parked at the tent, it's blindingly clear that SpaceX is not simply using the tent as a temporary storage location – alongside the arrival of composite fabrication materials (prepreg sheets, epoxy, etc) from Airtech International, SpaceX undeniably intends to begin initial fabrication of the first BFR prototypes in this tent, although they will likely eventually move the activities to the Berth 240 Mars rocket factory. That's certainly not a sentence I ever expected to write, but it is what it is.
The BFR's height may be elongated from its planned total of 106 meters.
Related: SpaceX to Launch Five Times in April, Test BFR by 2019
SpaceX BFR vs. ULA Vulcan Showdown in the 2020s
SpaceX Valued at $25 Billion... and More
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 18 2018, @06:01AM (13 children)
Trying to run a factory in California is nuts. The taxes and regulation are brutal.
Lots of places are easier: Texas, Florida, Nevada...
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 18 2018, @06:24AM (5 children)
It is why rural areas should float their infrastructure demands themselves. Self sufficient my ass. Read the tax bill to see our hidden welfare queens. They aren’t black and don’t drive Cadillacs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 18 2018, @05:33PM (3 children)
Urban leftists vote for welfare. If they want it, they should pay for it. Rural areas shouldn't have to pay for stuff they vote against.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 18 2018, @08:07PM (2 children)
You make zero sense here.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Wednesday April 18 2018, @11:49PM (1 child)
Might be news to you but "rural states" often have cities in them : )
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(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday April 19 2018, @09:08AM
So true. People think Pennsylvania is nothing but farms. And it has so many! But it has the Harrisburg International Airport (they call it MDT). Tremendous airport. I fly in, I hold a rally -- I've done two rallies there -- and THOUSANDS of people show up. It's incredible. And they love me, no matter what. Because they know I'm Making America Great Again.
California, it's the same. It's our biggest farm state, as everyone knows. It's #1 for farming. And 2nd for livestock. But it has the Los Angeles International Airport (they call it LAX). Beautiful airport, looks like it landed from outer space. Like an alien spaceship. It has Trump National Golf Club, Los Angeles. I'm very proud of that one. And Beverly Hills, it's the Harrisburg of California. I fly in, I hold a fundraiser -- and I get MILLIONS of dollars for our terrific Republican Party. It's incredible. And I've had some great rallies there. The CITIZENS there love me. Thousands of them. Because I'm Making America Great Again.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday April 19 2018, @08:36AM
My dad loved Cadillac. And I love Cadillac, it's an American classic. I had one with a VERY SPECIAL license plate, it said DJT. People don't know, those are my initials. It was like I had it monogrammed!! Great conversation piece. It got me so much pussy. And nobody ever, ever called me a welfare queen. They called me very smart. Because I got some AMAZING tax abatements!!!!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday April 18 2018, @11:32AM (4 children)
Due to the size of BFR they require a coastal area/port for now.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 18 2018, @05:30PM (2 children)
Let's start with Florida. Most of the SpaceX rockets launch from there anyway. The area right around Cape Canaveral is great. Fort Lauderdale, Jacksonville, and Miami all work too.
Then there is Texas. SpaceX is building a launch pad there. Houston is an obvious place, but the coast is long.
Then there is Mississippi, with Stennis Space Center, where engines are tested.
Then there is Louisiana, where the largest portion of the Saturn V was built.
Then there is Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina...
Those are just the obvious ones. We can easily transport a BFG on the Mississippi River and on the Missouri River. That opens up a lot of possibilities in the middle of the country.
The northern part of the east coast is generally troublesome like California, but New Hampshire isn't too bad. That is a possibility too.
(Score: 2) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday April 18 2018, @08:44PM
$0.01 - Hurricanes
$0.01 - Space kit like the second stages are usually deorbited into the Pacific because of its high concentration of nothing. Houston and the Gulf are shallower, smaller targets, with a much lower concentration of nothing.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday May 09 2018, @02:12PM
Of course one of your primary considerations is where your engineers are willing to live. After all rocket production is a lot more engineer-heavy than cars or can-openers. ven full-scale BFR production will probably only be a few rockets a year, *maybe* a few dozen if looking to rapidly build a fleet of hundreds, which seems silly given the currently limited demand for launch services, and the fact that the BFR is being designed to be reusable enough that one or two of them could handle pretty much the entire global demand for several years. Most of the process will be design, testing, and revision.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday May 09 2018, @02:03PM
Seems rather small though - It looks like Berth 240 is only about 650x350 feet, maybe twice that if the warehouse-looking structures at the south end are included. I would have thought they'd need more room to build something that size. Though I suppose they may only need to build the fuselage and fuel tanks there, along with final assembly. Everything else should be small enough to be transported overland without difficulties. And as I recall, both tanks and fuselage were going to be carbon-composites, so might well be built with the same equipment, in which case I could see there being enough room for construction, testing, and storage.
Berth 240, Terminal Island, LA:
https://www.google.com/maps/search/Terminal+Island+site+at+Berth+240/@33.7335851,-118.2697217,356m/data=!3m1!1e3 [google.com]
(Score: 4, Informative) by ElizabethGreene on Wednesday April 18 2018, @02:16PM
My understanding is the external requirements make this location, within the port of LA, good in this instance.
It's got...
* Deepwater port access - It's only a matter of time before you see open ocean launches of this kit.
* Lots of warehouse space available - They almost ran out of storage space when they started recovering Falcon cores.
* Great weather - Makes rocketry easier.
* Proximity to Hawthorne - Well within tunneling distance. ;)
* Transport infrastructure - Very important. The BFR will be as tall as a 30 story building. That's a lot of freight.
I have one concern. My understanding is the Dockworkers' union effectively runs the port. I sincerely hope that doesn't become an issue.
(Score: 2) by fritsd on Wednesday April 18 2018, @06:31PM
Maybe it depends on how much longer a transpacific flight is than a transatlantic flight.
Los Angeles - (rocket) - Dubai - (plane) - Frankfurt, for example.
If you'd divide the world into four orange slices, starting from the meridian of Los Angeles, then:
- slice 1 (Americas) is cheapest/quickest to fly
- slice 4 (transpacific) is cheapest/quickest to fly
- slice 2 and 3 (everywhere except Americas and East Asia) it *could* be faster (cheaper?? naah) to take the rocket, then the plane
Whereas if you start from the meridian of Cape Kennedy:
- slice 1 (transatlantic and Latin America) cheapest/quickest to fly
- slice 4 (North America) cheapest/quickest to fly
- slice 2 and 3 (everywhere except Americas) it *could* be faster to take the rocket and plane
Hmm.. maybe Cape Kennedy would be better. To Singapore in under two hours?