Interesting article over at the California Political Review. Seems Mr. Musk will be building the Rocket Formerly Known As "BFR" at his existing site in Texas.
He canceled a lease with the Port of Los Angeles for a 19 acre parcel where he was going to build the rocket. And they've also laid off 10% of their workforce "to become a leaner company".
The article is loaded with links to other sources, and is pretty interesting.
Go RTWT
ATK Remanufactured Engines moved from Santa Ana to Grand Prairie around 2014. The CEO, Peter Butterfield, told us after deducting the costs, they still saved $800,000 their first year. This was a company started in 1939 with sixty or so employees. Most of the employees made the move to Texas.
ReplyDeleteYou have to believe bleeding companies and productive residents hurts the long term financial viability of California.
Yep, Kommiefornia is doing very well at diving business' and productive people out of the state.
ReplyDeleteNissan left, Toyota is leaving, and I wonder how much longer Honda will stay.
He's smart enough to bail on Kommiefornia... :-)
ReplyDeleteHe's a businessman. He's exercising prudent judgement in containing his costs of doing business.
DeleteSmart decision on his part.
ReplyDeleteSoCal Aerospace is but a ghost of what it was when I moved there in 1982.
DeleteAnd even more interesting, Musk announced he's ditching Carbon Fiber construction to go to stainless steel.
ReplyDeleteSeems a stainless steel rocket will better handle cooling, heating, exit and re-entry, and be significantly cheaper to make, both in cost of materials and in cost of assembly.
So, the shiny finned starships of the 50's are going to be a reality!
And not built in Kommifornia, but the (so far) Free State of Texas!
That would be, CF construction in the BFR.
DeleteInteresting, Beans, I hadn't heard that.
DeleteMaybe I'll get my spaceship "LUNA" from Destination Moon after all!
Interesting, in that David Drake (the sci-fi writer) talked about getting away from composites (mostly ceramics) in the third book of his "The Reaches" trilogy. He wrote about how ceramic-composite ships (from Venus, sci-fi, okay?) suffered from cracking and repeated stress would delaminate, so one merchant line was going to metal hulled ships from Earth.
DeleteThe Elon Musk article is here:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/rockets/a25953663/elon-musk-spacex-bfr-stainless-steel/
Strange but true, Sci-Fi predicts reality before it happens.
DeleteAnd, yes, I want my shiny winged spaceship, too. Maybe the one from "When Worlds Collide."
Musk needs to subcontract out to General Products. I hear their hulls can even withstand a "Neutron Star"!
ReplyDelete