Elon Musk says SpaceX planning second rocket facility near Waco

WACO, Texas (KWTX) - In a series of tweets on Saturday, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced the company is building a second rocket engine factory near its existing facility in Central Texas with the hope of one day powering a fleet capable of creating a city on Mars.

The SpaceX Rocket Development Facility is currently located at 1 Rocket Road in McGregor, just outside Waco.

“We are breaking ground soon on a second Raptor factory at SpaceX Texas test site,” Musk said in a tweet, “It will be the highest output & most advanced rocket engine factory in the world.”

“This will focus on volume production of Raptor 2, while California factory will make Raptor Vacuum & new, experimental designs.”

Musk explained that by " volume production,” he meant two to four engines a day. “That’s super high volume for big rocket engines, but low volume by automotive standards,” Musk tweeted.

Twitter followers asked Musk why the new rocket facility will not be built at the site of SpaceX’s Starbase Rocket Launching Facility in South Texas.

“The challenges of operating at Starbase left us with no choice but to put engine production in McGregor,” he replied.

When asked how many of the raptor engines he hopes to produce a year, Musk answered, “roughly 800 to 1000 per year.”

Musk said that is what is needed “over ten years to create the fleet to build a self-sustaining city on Mars. City itself probably takes roughly 20 years so, hopefully, it is built by 2050.”

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