SpaceX is laying the groundwork for expansion at its Roberts Road facility at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Driven by a commitment to future advancements, SpaceX continuously enhances its infrastructure along the Space Coast. These developments include new buildings, property expansions, and Starship’s production in Florida.
Starship’s History in Florida
SpaceX has already made two attempts to bring Starship to Cape Canaveral, Florida, but both have stalled out. The first attempt was an initial battle between two Starship development teams in Boca Chica, Texas, and the other in Cocoa, Florida, in 2019. Although both teams progressed on a prototype Starship variant dubbed MK1 and MK2, the Cocoa team was eventually sent to the small retirement village outside of Brownsville after Boca Chica was deemed the more effective site.
The second attempt came in 2022 when effort was put into developing Roberts Road’s ground into a Starship production facility. In the area already acquired by HangarX, where Falcon 9’s boosters are refurbished, a second larger building, originally planned to be a Starfactory, was created with the belief that it would be used for Starship production.
Space was also cleared around what became HangarX2 for the first mega bay in Florida to stack starship parts from the facility. However, only the foundation of the mega bay was completed. HangarX2 was eventually completed but was never used to build the Starship’s main components. This plan was again put on hold because SpaceX wanted expedited progress at Starbase. This decision gave SpaceX time to plan a significant expansion around Roberts Road, which became a more desired option than using the original footprint.
Roberts Road Infrastructure Upgrades
Today, Roberts Road is in the beginning stages of an expansion. In late September, HangarX was spotted gaining a notable increase in space. While this project is incomplete, only about a month of work has been put into expanding the building.
A roof already covers almost all of the expansion to HangarX, and walls are completed along one side. Only a slim portion of the siding, including two new garage bays, is left to add. This portion of HangarX could be used to refurbish Falcon 9 boosters or fairings before they are reused and returned to orbit.
HangarX’s expansion nearing completion. (Credit: Julia Bergeron for NSF/L2)
SpaceX’s second starship tower at Starbase was stacked in record time, taking only four months to complete after the modules came prepared from Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The steel support pedestals used to build and prepare the tower are back at Roberts Road in the same positions as before. At least two additional towers could be built at the Cape: one at SLC-37 to support launch operations — pending environmental assessment approval — and the other at LC-39A specifically to catch Starship and Superheavy upon landing. It is expected SpaceX will continue building more launch pads at the Cape as Starship’s launch cadence increases.
Once parts are ready, SpaceX is expected to rapidly prepare the build and launch sites to meet its goal of launching Starship from the Cape in 2025.
A new tent is beginning to be raised on the ground of the Roberts Road facility in place of where the SLC-40 tower was built, stretching the whole way to what was the intended mega bay foundation. This tent is roughly 40 meters wide and 140 meters long — this is longer than the old tests at the Starbase build site, which were 35 meters wide and 114 meters long. This new tent could be used for various reasons, like building the new tower sections or orbital launch mount components in a controlled environment, or it could be the beginning of bringing Starship production back to Florida.
The frame of a new large tent going up at Roberts Road on Oct. 25, 2024. (Credit: Max Evans for NSF/L2)
If Starship is to return, SpaceX would likely first bring the most essential parts of the process to KSC. This tent has around 40% more ground space than the old tents at Starbase, and it has the benefit of being taller on the edges, which could make building nosecones or beginning stacking ring sections much more manageable. SpaceX would still need to create a new mega bay to fully stack a starship, but it could use what is already known from Starbase to begin working out the processes in this tent.
SpaceX built the old three main tents, a staple of Starbase, in only three months, from early January to late March 2020. If the plan is to bring a version to the Cape, entirely new facilities will not take long to come online. SpaceX would only need one more large tent to cover over 90% of the space inside the old tents at Starbase.
A view of all three old tents at an early Starbase on March 16, 2020. (Credit: BocaChicaGal/Mary for NSF)
The Roberts Road site plans to expand significantly to the North of SpaceX’s acquired land. Documents planning phase one, which came out in May 2024, shows this new land is preparing for a giant expansion of SpaceX’s activities at KSC.
SpaceX’s first step is to pave, grade, and apply adequate drainage to the land, allowing it to use 43 acres with room to expand. This is then expected to lead to a Florida Starfactory being built on this land. The Starfactory at Starbase stretches 23 acres, leaving room for possible Florida mega bays for stacking Starship if similar dimensions are applied to this new land.
SpaceX’s Roberts Road phase one expansion plan for paving, grading, and drainage. (Credit: SpaceX)
Elon Musk, the founder and CEO of SpaceX, has mentioned that Starship is planned to launch from the Cape in 2025. With all of the effort SpaceX continues to pour into the Roberts Road facility and the new expansion, Starship will become a prominent part of KSC, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, and the entire Space Coast in the not-so-distant future.
(Lead Image: Overview of SpaceX’s Roberts Road facility at KSC in Florida. Credit: Max Evans for NSF/L2)
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