Under the lease, SpaceX will launch its workhorse Falcon
rockets from Space Launch Complex-6 at Vandenberg Space Force Base, a military
launch site north of Los Angeles where the space company operates another
launchpad. It has two others in Florida and its private Starbase site in south
Texas.
A Monday night Space Force statement said a letter of
support for the decision was signed on Friday by Space Launch Delta 30
commander Col. Rob Long. The statement did not mention the duration of SpaceX's
lease.
The new launch site, vacated last year by the
Boeing-Lockheed joint venture United Launch Alliance, gives SpaceX more room to
handle an increasingly busy launch schedule for commercial, government and
internal satellite launches.
Vandenberg Space Force Base allows for launches in a
southern trajectory over the Pacific Ocean, which is often used for weather
monitoring, military or spy satellites that commonly rely on polar Earth
orbits.
SpaceX's grant of Space Launch Complex-6 comes as rocket
companies prepare to compete for the Pentagon's Phase 3 National Security Space
Launch programme, a watershed military launch procurement effort expected to
begin in the next year or so.
Last month, Musk denied a media report from earlier this
week that said investors from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were
planning to invest in a multi-billion-dollar funding round in the company.
A unit of Saudi Arabia's investment fund and an Abu
Dhabi-based company are planning to invest in a multi-billion-dollar funding
round for SpaceX, the Information had reported on Wednesday, citing people
familiar with the discussions.
Musk tweeted "not true" responding to the report.
The funding round is expected to value the rocket maker at
about $140 billion, the report added.
SpaceX raised $2 billion in 2022 and $2.6 billion in 2020,
according to venture capital firm Space Capital. © Reuters
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