SpaceX Is Building BFR In LA
Officially announcing that @SpaceX will start production development of the Big Falcon Rocket ? in the @PortofLA!
This vehicle holds the promise of taking humanity deeper into the cosmos than ever before. #SOTC2018 pic.twitter.com/2TtGy9NERX
— Mayor Eric Garcetti (@MayorOfLA) April 16, 2018
SpaceX moving fast on Mars rocket development, BFR tent spied with more tooling, Teslarati
“Spotted inside the temporary structure thanks to open flaps and a human desire for a breeze amidst the warm Los Angeles springtime, the main cylindrical component is truly vast – large enough that the eye almost glazes over it at first glance. Dwarfing the humans clambering about it, very rough estimates using knowledge of the tent’s reported area (20,000 square feet) and size comparisons with machinery blueprints suggest a diameter of around 8-10 meters (26-36 feet), loosely conforming to the expected 9m diameter of BFR, as of CEO Elon Musk’s IAC 2017 update.”
I wonder how many of the old space firms are buying condos on South Padre Island so they will be able to watch the flight tests when they start.
There was a time when so cal was covered with lots of space firms (Northrop, Douglas, General Dynamics, Ball, Boeing, Lockheed, Marietta, and a zillion subcontractors). It seems most are just shells of what they used to be but now Musk is setting up shop in many of those “abandoned” sites.
Lots of us recall when those firms were decimated by a Presidential policy.
As I understand it, ‘the President proposes, Congress disposes.’
So if that is the case, then your statement is not accurate and the final decision was made by Congress.
However perhaps I’m not following you so if you’d care to expand?
Cheers
“As I understand it, ‘the President proposes, Congress disposes.’ “
While somewhat true, Congress can also propose legislation, programs, and amendments on its own initiative – and override a presidential veto. An example would be presidential budgets, which are routinely discarded then Congress writes their own budget.
Results, of course, vary. Such an initiative gave us SLS.
Having grown up in CA from the 60’s thru late-90’s I saw Sacramento pile on regulations, fees and taxes until those aerospace companies that didn’t move out, either got bought out by out-of-state competitors or went bust on starvation diets.
Yes, I realize a lot of their failings was just the law of the business jungle. Still, that State has a bad habit of making “enlightened” (& unilateral) mandates, and then get confused over why people are leaving.
Odd that SpaceX would choose to locate in CA then… There has been a lot of consolidation of the aerospace industry, I imagine at least partly the result of looser antitrust enforcement. And of course some companies (e.g., TRW) just went out of business. Not sure you can blame either on CA. Boeing is out of state, and did buy various parts of Hughes, McDonnell Douglas, and Rockwell International, but apparently still has facilities in Huntington Beach, Seal Beach, Long Beach, etc. so I’d imagine it doesn’t escape all of CA regulations, maybe some taxes. Northrop Grumman still has a presence in So. Cal., and Lockheed Martin has facilities in Cal.
Nonsense.
Coolest thing since the Saturn V program!
Speaking of the Saturn V…. Granted those are vacuum Raptor engines (hence large nozzles), but da’yum! Don’t they look an awful lot like those glorious F-1 engines?
They sure do! It is great to see.
Thanks for the repost, Keith!
Sort of reminds me of the Sea Dragon concept: build it in a shipyard and float it out to sea to be fueled and launched. Of course Sea Dragon never happened, but BFR appears underway. More power to them. Maybe if these things work okay, SLS will go away! Oh, well, we can hope…
Ad LEO! Ad Luna! Ad Ares! AD ASTRA!