Monday, December 16, 2013
SpaceX Negotiating Lease For Space Shuttle Launchpad
Hawthorne-based SpaceX is in negotiations with NASA to lease a launch pad at Kennedy Space Center, NASA said Friday, in a move which--symbolically, at least--would give SpaceX a premiere location to launch its rocket missions into space. NASA said that it is working with SpaceX to lease historic Launch Complex (LC) 39A, which has been used to launch the United States into space. Launch Complex 39A & B was the base for Apollo, Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz and all 135 space shuttle missions, according to NASA. SpaceX had been competing against Blue Origin, a rocket firm backed by Amazon.com founder Blue Origin, to lease the launch pad. NASA said it would begin working immediately with SpaceX to negotiate the terms of its lease for LC-39A.