In a groundbreaking collaboration to further push exploration of mankind’s two remaining frontiers — ocean and space — Los Angeles port officials on Thursday announced that rocket innovator SpaceX will join with marine research center AltaSea in a yearlong partnership at San Pedro’s outer harbor.

“I always thought there was a connection between the port and aerospace and this is just the beginning of building the bridge between the two,” Los Angeles Harbor Commissioner Anthony Pirozzi said.

The announcement of the offshore-platform recovery and other programs that will be launched in San Pedro elicited a wave of praise at the regular Board of Harbor Commissioners meeting.

“I’m fired up, I don’t know about you,” said Los Angeles Councilman Joe Buscaino, who called it an “amazing partnership.”

The port will provide a land-use agreement but ultimately the deal calls for SpaceX to be listed as a client of AltaSea, which is still in the process of being formed.

The port will be used as home base for three recovery vessels — Marmac 303 (a landing platform), Smith RHEA (a tug) and NRC Quest (the support boat).

SpaceX crew and the vessels will arrive in early July with a 50-member team to begin work in the outer harbor where AltaSea is located. The partnership comes at a time when AltaSea remains in its early stages of development and is seeking tenants.

AltaSea, which will be built in three phases, is envisioned as a 35-acre center with seawater laboratories, offices, a lecture hall, interpretive center and a wave tank, wrapping in participation from many of the region’s leading universities.

The matchup with SpaceX, headquartered in Hawthorne, is a significant boon to the center’s ongoing fundraising efforts.

It also is hoped to be a step forward for SpaceX and its ongoing attempts — so far unsuccessful in two tries this year — to land its reusable, Florida-launched Falcon 9 rocket on a drone/barge landing pad in the Pacific Ocean.

The challenge for SpaceX is finding a way to nail a soft, yet balanced landing so the rocket does not tip over.

Perfecting a vertical landing intact on a platform at sea, said Jimi Smoot, recovery operations engineer at SpaceX, “will revolutionize the industry.”

All 18 launches into space from Cape Canaveral so far have been successful, he said, but the recovery and landings in the Pacific still need honing.

The outer harbor location near Warehouse One, dubbed the planet’s new “gateway to space” by one of the speakers Thursday, also will support offloading of both the Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rockets that carry the Dragon into space. The first mission is planned for early August with others to follow, each bringing in a new 50-member SpaceX team on rotation through July 2016.

“We plan to make the Port of Los Angeles our home” for those missions over the next year, Smoot said, adding that the arrangement could be extended after that.

The SpaceX DragonLab also will team up with AltaSea in advancing the “science of sustainability,” according to Thursday’s presentation.

“Space is said to be the final frontier, but we all know it’s just one of two final frontiers,” said marine biologist Daniel Pondella, who heads up the Southern California Marine Institute. The two centers working “side by side,” he said, will bring a new synergy to research being done by both.

The collaboration is also expected to bring jobs, businesses, educational opportunities — and some much needed buzz to the developing L.A. Waterfront.

“If the councilman is fired up and the commissioners are excited, then I’m a kid in a candy store,” said Alex Rose, an AltaSea board member and senior vice president of development for Continental Development Corp. in El Segundo.

Other speakers said the partnership offers a multitude of opportunities for area schools, entrepreneurs and businesses. It also could be a selling point for marketers trying to attract new retail and other tenants to the port community.

“This will be a great economic benefit to the region and it will have a multiplier effect,” said Alycia Witzling of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. “I grew up in the San Fernando Valley when aerospace was big. SpaceX is changing the aerospace industry and bringing an excitement to the field that I haven’t seen for a while.”