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Elon Musk plans to build Mars spaceships in Los Angeles - here's what we know about SpaceX's future rocket factory

Dave Mosher   

Elon Musk plans to build Mars spaceships in Los Angeles - here's what we know about SpaceX's future rocket factory
Science1 min read

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SpaceX/YouTube

An illustration of SpaceX's Big Falcon Rocket.

Elon Musk is working on something out-of-this-world in Los Angeles.

The founder of SpaceX has spoken for years about building the Big Falcon Rocket: a giant reusable launch system designed to get people to and from Mars (and perhaps around the red planet).

Most recently, Musk said SpaceX hopes to begin short up-and-down launches of the BFR system's 157-foot-tall spaceship in early 2019.

Until now, however, SpaceX has been mum about where, exactly, it plans to build such enormous rockets.

On Monday, a member of the r/SpaceX community on Reddit noticed a curious move by the Board of Harbor Commissioners in Los Angeles. The organization recently and quietly approved a 788-page plan by SpaceX to lease an 18-acre site in the Port of Los Angeles, including a 200,000-square-foot facility to "to manufacture large commercial transportation vessels".

Eric Berger at Ars Technica has since anonymously confirmed that the facility "is, indeed, intended for the manufacture of the BFR."

A source close to the matter told Business Insider that SpaceX is likely just weeks away from being officially offered a lease to the site.

Here's what we know about the proposed plan, and what SpaceX's "state-of-the-art" Mars rocket factory may look like when finished.

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