SpaceX Searches for New Commercial Launch Site

Press Release From: SpaceX

Posted: Friday, November 18, 2011

Hawthorne, CA - Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) is searching for a new launch site to meet increasing demand from commercial customers.



SpaceX already has an active launch pad at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida and is currently developing a new launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The company also operates a rocket development facility in McGregor, Texas.



"Our growing launch manifest has led us to look for additional sites. We're considering several states and territories," said SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. "I envision this site functioning like a commercial Cape Canaveral."



SpaceX is the fastest growing launch services provider in the world, having received 14 new orders for its Falcon 9 rocket within the last year alone. The company has over 3 billion dollars of revenue on the books through 2017, and has sold over 40 missions for the Falcon 9, over half of which are for commercial customers.



Four U.S. states - Virginia, California, Alaska, and Florida - have active launch sites. Given the complexity of developing a rocket launch site, SpaceX will be pursuing several options concurrently in order to fully understand the pros and cons of each location.



View SpaceX's busy manifest of launches: http://www.spacex.com/launch_manifest.php

// end //

More news releases and status reports or top stories.

Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.

Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.