SpaceX is in the market for some new waterfront real estate. According to multiple reports, the company is interested in an 18-acre site at the Port of Los Angeles for a manufacturing facility that would build "commercial transportation vessels" so large that they couldn't be delivered by road, but instead require a supply barge for shipment over the water.
According to the Daily Breeze, the project is in the initial stages and will soon undergo an environmental review for the former site of the Southwest Marine Shipyard where the company would like to build a 105-foot-tall, 203,450-square-foot building.
According to the project description, the facility will be used “to design, develop, and manufacture prototypes and first-generation models of specialized commercial transportation vessels." Space ships. It would also be used to recover vehicles retrieved by drone ships.
SpaceX would only confirm that it is in "preliminary discussions" about the property and would not detail future plans for the site.
One massive project on Elon Musk's wish list is the BFR, a massive 31-engine rocket. The BFR, which stands for more than just Big Falcon Rocket, could be the future craft responsible for colonizing Mars. The rocket would be strapped to a spaceship that could carry up to 100 people headed for the red planet. The craft is reportedly under development now, with initial unmanned missions targeted for 2022. If all goes according to plan, people could be headed to Mars as soon as 2024.
Twitter accounts for SpaceX and Elon Musk have been surprisingly quiet on the project thus far. But if you're looking for motivation, look at Musk's post from March 10th about the recent Starman campaign that sent his old Tesla Roadster into space, "There need to be things that inspire you, that make you glad to wake up in the morning and be part of humanity."
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