SpaceX in deal to use Port of Long Beach facility for rocket recovery

In this long exposure photo, photographers watch a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with the Crew Dragon space capsule lifts off from pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., on April 23, 2021. (Brynn Anderson / Associated Press)

by: Associated Press

Posted: Apr 27, 2021 / 03:21 PM PDT

Updated: Apr 27, 2021 / 03:24 PM PDT

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

SpaceX is in a deal to use a marine terminal in the Port of Long Beach for West Coast rocket recovery operations.

The Long Beach Board of Harbor Commissioners approved a new sublease agreement with Elon Musk’s space launch company on Monday.

SpaceX will take over a wharf that was vacated in February 2020 by Sea Launch, a company that sailed a self-propelled ocean-going launch platform and a command ship to the equator for satellite launches. Sea Launch kept the vessels at Long Beach between launches.

Hawthorne, California-based SpaceX will take over the 6.5-acre facility on May 1.

SpaceX can land the first stage of its Falcon 9 rockets on sea-going landing pads for reuse and also recovers its Dragon capsules after ocean splashdowns.

The company had used a site in the neighboring Port of Los Angeles for recovery operations. It also twice backed out of plans to build its Starship rocket in the Port of LA.