Elon Musk’s SpaceX To Build New Facilities In Port Canaveral For Falcon 9 Rocket’s Refurbishment

First Posted: Aug 26, 2016 08:58 AM EDT
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Elon Musk's space company SpaceX is reportedly all set to move some of its operations to a new facility in Port Canaveral, Florida, where it will perform rocket refurbishment task. The news was confirmed by Port Canaveral's Chief Executive Officer, John Murray.

Murray said SpaceX intends to lease a 52,000-square-foot Spacehab building in the north side of the port, which had served as a facility for an aerospace company currently known as Astrotech Corporation. In fact, the space company is also planning to construct a second facility on a vacant land adjacent to the first building once a formal lease is signed. The two new locations will reportedly be used to refurbish and collect first-stage Falcon 9 rockets that have already been launched from Cape Canaveral. The lease agreement for the former Spacehab building is expected to get finalized as soon as early September, reported TechTimes.

It is to be noted that SpaceX's first Cape launch which took place in 2015 failed completely, but since then the aerospace company has had eight successful missions this year. The first Falcon 9 rocket was launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in June. It is expected that reusing the rockets will turn out to be major step toward less expensive space flights and would reduce launch costs by as much as 30 percent. The Elon Musk's space company, SpaceX, already has two launch pads in the area, one at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and one at the Kennedy Space Center.

SpaceX spokesman, John Taylor, said that they are very pleased to receive a permit for temporary use of the Port Canaveral facility and that SpaceX will use the opportunity to find out if the facility can support its business in Florida on a longer-term basis, reported Ubergizmo. The space company is expected to launch its next rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station next month.

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