SpaceX announced Monday its plans to launch Starship from Kennedy Space Center later this year while building out more support infrastructure in Florida to support two launch sites.
SpaceX has been building out a launch tower for the massive rocket at Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39-A while also pursuing the right to build out a Starship pad at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Complex 37.
“We plan to complete the Starship launch pad at Pad 39-A this year, and pending the completion of environmental reviews, SpaceX intends to conduct the first Starship launch from Florida from Launch Pad 39-A later this year,” SpaceX commentator Dan Huot said during the company’s latest test launch attempt from Texas.
Both the KSC and Canaveral sites are under environmental impact reviews. Canaveral’s SLC-37 was previously used by United Launch Alliance, but that company performed its final Delta IV Heavy launch last year.
“SpaceX has been given a limited right of entry for Pad 37 to conduct further due diligence at the site in order to move forward with the environmental impact study that’s being led by the Department of the Air Force,” Huot said. “Ultimately, we will have production integration, refurbishment and launch facilities in both Florida and Texas.”
One major infrastructure build happening in both Texas and Florida is a processing facility SpaceX is calling “gigabay.”
The gigabay will be 380 feet tall with about 46.5 million cubic feet of interior processing space and 815,000 square feet of work space.
In comparison, KSC’s Vehicle Assembly Building is 525 feet tall.
“As the name implies, will allow us to process more Starships at the same time over our current megabays,” Huot said.
Environmental impact studies for both Florida sites were started in 2024, but expected to be complete this year.
SpaceX’s plans are to build up infrastructure in Florida and potentially other launch sites to get to hundreds and eventually thousands of Starship launches a year, part of Musk’s goal of creating a colony on Mars.
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Source: American Military News