Should SpaceX sing Sweet Home Alabama...
SpaceX is often seen as a New Space company, which, despite its impressive track record and the unmatched technology, is seen as an underdog for the most lucrative contracts with NASA and DoD.
This is pronounced the most by continuing support for ULA family of launch vehicles, SLS and Orion. All major Old Space companies are present in Alabama, primarily concentrated around Huntsville.
How important is aerospace industry for Alabama? Over 1% of total Alabama population works in aerospace industry. That is sixty thousand people. Redstone Arsenal, the home of missile and rocket technology, is the largest employer in the state. Boeing and Marshall Space Flight Center employ more people than Walmart. Each. And those are high paying jobs. Just the MSFC budget exceeds 1% of Alabama GDP. So we could estimate that aerospace industry itself represents nearly 5% of Alabama GDP, which is among the poorest in the USA. 6th from the bottom, around 25% below the average.
So no wonder that their political representatives fight in every way possible to keep federal spending locked to local industry. That is most notable in behavior of Senator Richard Shelby, chair of Senate committee responsible for NASA budget.
SpaceX is notably absent from Huntsville aerospace hub, and that is definitely hurting their chances for getting lucrative contracts. So what should they do? Relocate any of development programs from Hawthorne? Not likely. But they are running out of space there as the number of development and manufacturing projects increases. Dragon 2. Dragon XL. Raptor. Starship design. Falcon. If only they could take the production line that is stable and will not require much, if any further development. Then move it to new location. Somewhere where salaries are lower than in California. And where appropriate skilled labor is available. And where SpaceX would be lured with incentives. Just like Tesla Gigafactories. Seattle? Nah, they are into satellites now. Austin? Space coast? Texas? But they have issues with skilled workers around Browsville area already. Which leaves...Huntsville.
By opening a factory in Huntsville area, SpaceX could become a major employer in the state. It would be much easier for Alabama political representatives to agree with retiring SLS if Falcon cores would be built there. And Merlins. With time, maybe even Raptors. And thanks to its connection to US inland waterway system, larger structures can be built and transported to the launch sites in Florida and South Texas.
This step would reduce costs of producing Falcon cores and engines, reduce transport time of cores and engines, free up factory space in Hawthorne and win political support for SpaceX and Falcon. In the long run, it might even enable spinning off Falcon and Dragon product line into a separate company that could potentially have IPO or be sold to a separate entity. That way SpaceX could focus on new product lines (Starlink/Starship), avoid perception of being de-facto monopoly for space transportation and high bandwidth space based communications provider and allow retirement of ULA and SLS based technology.
P.S. An interesting tidbit about the evergreen song from the title: authors were not from Alabama. They were born in California and Florida.
This is pronounced the most by continuing support for ULA family of launch vehicles, SLS and Orion. All major Old Space companies are present in Alabama, primarily concentrated around Huntsville.
How important is aerospace industry for Alabama? Over 1% of total Alabama population works in aerospace industry. That is sixty thousand people. Redstone Arsenal, the home of missile and rocket technology, is the largest employer in the state. Boeing and Marshall Space Flight Center employ more people than Walmart. Each. And those are high paying jobs. Just the MSFC budget exceeds 1% of Alabama GDP. So we could estimate that aerospace industry itself represents nearly 5% of Alabama GDP, which is among the poorest in the USA. 6th from the bottom, around 25% below the average.
So no wonder that their political representatives fight in every way possible to keep federal spending locked to local industry. That is most notable in behavior of Senator Richard Shelby, chair of Senate committee responsible for NASA budget.
SpaceX is notably absent from Huntsville aerospace hub, and that is definitely hurting their chances for getting lucrative contracts. So what should they do? Relocate any of development programs from Hawthorne? Not likely. But they are running out of space there as the number of development and manufacturing projects increases. Dragon 2. Dragon XL. Raptor. Starship design. Falcon. If only they could take the production line that is stable and will not require much, if any further development. Then move it to new location. Somewhere where salaries are lower than in California. And where appropriate skilled labor is available. And where SpaceX would be lured with incentives. Just like Tesla Gigafactories. Seattle? Nah, they are into satellites now. Austin? Space coast? Texas? But they have issues with skilled workers around Browsville area already. Which leaves...Huntsville.
By opening a factory in Huntsville area, SpaceX could become a major employer in the state. It would be much easier for Alabama political representatives to agree with retiring SLS if Falcon cores would be built there. And Merlins. With time, maybe even Raptors. And thanks to its connection to US inland waterway system, larger structures can be built and transported to the launch sites in Florida and South Texas.
This step would reduce costs of producing Falcon cores and engines, reduce transport time of cores and engines, free up factory space in Hawthorne and win political support for SpaceX and Falcon. In the long run, it might even enable spinning off Falcon and Dragon product line into a separate company that could potentially have IPO or be sold to a separate entity. That way SpaceX could focus on new product lines (Starlink/Starship), avoid perception of being de-facto monopoly for space transportation and high bandwidth space based communications provider and allow retirement of ULA and SLS based technology.
P.S. An interesting tidbit about the evergreen song from the title: authors were not from Alabama. They were born in California and Florida.
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