5 things to know about SpaceX expansion at Kennedy Space Center
Elon Musk has big new plans for SpaceX at Kennedy Space Center.
According to a draft environmental review published recently by KSC, SpaceX will undertake a major expansion of its facilities at the spaceport sometime soon.
[ Click here to read KSC's draft environmental review ]
Here are 5 things to know about the proposed new SpaceX Operations Area at KSC:
Futuristic (and very tall) control tower
Like something out of "The Jetsons," SpaceX plans include a 32,000-square-foot tower standing up to 300 feet tall. An artist's rendering shows a sphere sitting atop a narrow column with windowed tiers overlooking Cape Canaveral launch pads, including SpaceX's 39A at KSC and 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
At 300 feet, the tower would stand about as tall as the Statue of Liberty and half as high as Seattle's Space Needle, giving SpaceX a distinctive addition to KSC's skyline.
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The proposed launch and landing control tower would include a data center; firing room; engineering room; control center for Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy and Dragon vehicles; customer control center; and meeting spaces. A parking area would accommodate up to 200 cars.
Big new rocket hangar
SpaceX wants more room as it hopes to increase its launch rate and make reusing rockets more efficient. The company estimates there could eventually be up to 63 landings a year of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy boosters. The boosters and rocket nose cones would be stored and refurbished in a 133,000-square-foot hangar.
The expansion plans additionally include a 280,000-square-foot utilities yard and a 2,500-foot security center. The SpaceX Operations Area would expand the company’s KSC footprint beyond the hangar it built at the base of pad 39A.
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At Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, the company also controls Launch Complex 40, wo landing pads and a facility called Area 59, where it will process Dragon capsules. SpaceX also leases a building at Port Canaveral, where some boosters return from sea.
The SpaceX Operations Area is the latest major new private facility proposed at KSC, and would be the most significant to rise inside the spaceport’s secure perimeter.
A new rocket garden
Like the rockets from NASA's Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs at the nearby Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, the SpaceX expansion would include a new Rocket Garden to display "historic space vehicles."
Rocket Garden 2.0 should potentially include Falcon boosters or Dragon capsules staged vertically or horizontally.
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Where will this be?
For those on the Space Coast, "KSC" could mean the KSC Visitor Complex, the attraction that's home to the Shuttle Launch Experience ride, U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame and the Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit.
Many also think of the Vehicle Assembly Building, the iconic 525-foot-tall structure designed to assemble the Saturn V moon rocket, space shuttles and soon NASA's Space Launch System rocket.
The SpaceX Operations Area would be located on 67 acres of fallow or uncultivated land west of State Road 3, between the VAB and Visitor Complex.
KSC employees and visitors riding KSC tour buses to or from the Launch Complex 39 area would drive right by it.
No timeline or budget info yet
KSC's draft environmental review does not detail when the SpaceX facilities might be built and ready, how much they'll cost or how many jobs the project involves.
The public can read KSC’s draft environmental review on the center’s website or at libraries in Cocoa, Cocoa Beach, Melbourne, Merritt Island, Port St. John and Titusville.
Public comments may be submitted by July 10 via email to donald.j.dankert@nasa.gov, or by mail to Mr. Donald Dankert, KSC Environmental Management Branch, Mail Code: SI-E3, Kennedy Space Center, FL 32899.
Dean is a space reporter at FLORIDA TODAY.
Contact Dean at 321-242-3668
or jdean@floridatoday.com.
Twitter: @flatoday_jdean
Facebook: /spaceteamgo
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