SpaceX names Texas as site of its commercial space launch facility

Proposed launch facility site.

Federal Aviation Administration

At a press conference held this afternoon at the National Press Club in Washington DC, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced that last week's soft-landing of the leg-equipped Falcon 9 rocket was a success. The company's founder also let slip that SpaceX has chosen southern Texas as the location where it will build its own launch facility.

According to Houston Chronicle science reporter Eric Berger, Musk made the spaceport location announcement near the end of the news conference in response to a question from the audience. SpaceX has been searching for a location to build its own spaceport for some time and had narrowed the search down to Florida, Georgia, or Texas.

Southerly locations are preferred for rocket launches in the northern hemisphere because the closer a launch is to the equator, the more of a momentum "boost" the rocket gets from the earth's rotation. This, coupled with favorable economic terms, is why the final location contenders were all southern states.