SpaceX is one step closer towards its new facility at the port of Los Angeles where it will build BFR

SpaceX is one step closer to its ambitious spaceship facility at the Port of Los Angeles. Elon Musk, the founder of SpaceX envisioned a facility that will be used to build rockets and spaceships towards Mars by 2022 and therefore, the private space company submitted a 10-year lease with two renewal proposal to the council of Los Angeles city there awaiting approval but not anymore. SpaceX has officially got approval from the mayor of the city which is the first step towards making the vision a reality.

SpaceX has designed a new heavy-duty, high-powered rocket which has been named as Big Falcon Rocket or Big F**king Rocket or just BFR. The rocket is so humongous that it would need ships and barges to move around when developing and that is why SpaceX sought a proposal to build a facility at the Port of Los Angeles. Although SpaceX already uses the port for its various missions, it asked the mayor and the council to approve a 19-acre land on which, a spaceship facility will be built to develop BFR.

According to the annual State of the City address meeting which held on Monday (April 16), Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti gave his nod towards the project which is the first major victory for SpaceX towards the new facility. Garcetti quoted that “This [BFR] is a vehicle that holds the promise of taking humanity deeper into the cosmos than ever before”. He later added that the although the goal of the facility is to reach the space and heavens, it will create jobs here on Earth. SpaceX will appoint as many as 700 employees for its new facility according to the proposal submitted by the company.

SpaceX plans to replace the BFR with now-used Falcon Heavy, Falcon 9 and Dragon. Once completed and operational, Big Falcon Rocket will have a humongous cargo capacity with separate space for humans in order to make colonization on Mars a reality. It will be powered by powerful engines and boosters for a high-speed travel from Earth to the red planet for which, the company has quoted 2022 when the first ever maiden flight to Mars will be performed.

Now that SpaceX has received approval from the Mayor of Los Angeles, the proposal will be sent to the Los Angeles Board of Harbor Commissioners which will discuss and provide their approval (or disapproval) or Thursday (April 19). However, according to Joe Buscaino, a city councilman who represents San Pedro, the project is been seen to propel the waterfront community as it will create a bright future ahead. He added that since Mayor has already given his approval and now the Board of Harbor Commissioners are under Mayor who appoints the member, the project will get a approval on Thursday and he is confident about it.

After receiving the approval on Thursday, the project proposal will be transferred to the Trade, Travel, and Tourism Committee where the final approval will be made before the actual construction of the facility commences. Port of Los Angeles has become a science and technology front with job clusters giving the opportunity for job seekers to get a job here. AltaSea, a marine research lab is located at the port along with The Boeing Company and the Catalina Sea Ranch which is in partnership with AltaSea. Once the SpaceX facility arrives at the port at San Pedro, it will be home to both sea and space exploration.