With the move of its headquarters to Texas, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. leaves a big hole to fill in Hawthorne.
According to the website of the company more well known as SpaceX, its headquarters are now at Starbase, Texas near Brownsville, the site of its launch pad for the Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket, the largest ever built.
In a statement of information filed with the California Secretary of State’s office in August, Brownsville was listed as the principal office of SpaceX, and the same address – 1 Rocket Road – was listed for Elon Musk, the company’s founder and chief executive, and for Bret Johnsen, the chief financial officer, and the five other members of the SpaceX board of directors.
Attempts to reach a representative of SpaceX were not successful.
Still, SpaceX maintains a manufacturing plant in Hawthorne to develop and build the Falcon 9 rocket with hundreds of employees doing the work.
Reasons for the move
The headquarter move was first announced last year. In a posting on X – which Musk also owns – on July 16, Musk said it was because of Gov. Gavin Newsom signing into law AB 1955 that prevents schools from notifying parents when their children come out as transgender without the child’s consent, that he was moving the SpaceX headquarters.
“This is the final straw,” Musk wrote at the time. “Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its HQ from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas.”
Liang Sim, a senior adviser at Ann Arbor, Michigan-based aerospace consulting firm AeroDynamic Advisory, said that SpaceX will still have a presence in California where it has a lot of people working on the Falcon 9 rocket and in Texas, working on Starship.
“It doesn’t matter where their headquarters are. They will have a strong presence in both,” Sim said.
Madhu Thangavelu, a part-time lecturer of astronautical engineering at the Viterbi School of Engineering at USC and a lecturer in the School of Architecture, said he believed the company would keep its manufacturing operations local.
“People who live in California are generations of rocket builders. They have it in their blood,” he said. “Elon will have a hard time moving some of those smart folks from here to anyplace else.”
Big area for aviation companies
SpaceX is one of 25 aviation-focused businesses in Hawthorne, a city with a history of aerospace innovation. With a municipally owned airport within its borders, Hawthorne has long been a center for advancements in the aerospace industry.
“We are dedicated to continuing this legacy by attracting and supporting pioneering companies, ensuring that Hawthorne remains at the forefront of aerospace technology and innovation,” the city said.
“We understand that business decisions are driven by a variety of factors, and we remain committed to fostering a thriving business environment in Hawthorne,” Mayor Alex Vargas said in a statement. “We assure the residents of Hawthorne that our city’s strategic locationw and economic development programs make us an attractive destination for businesses of all sizes and industries.”
That would include SpaceX and its manufacturing facility.
If you stand outside of SpaceX’s Hawthorne factory on any afternoon when a shift is leaving for the day, what you will see are very young people, USC’s Thangavelu said.
“These are vibrant kids walking out after their shifts,” he added.
“I do believe that our educational system is far improved by these kinds of experiences where students go out and find work and they become convergent with these industrial processes,” Thangavelu continued. “And it is happening right there at SpaceX in Hawthorne.”
SpaceX and competitor Rocket Lab USA Inc. are good places for recent graduates to go and get jobs, along with other, smaller aerospace companies throughout Southern California, he said.
“Think about it: Who would want to go to Texas or to Florida when the kids who are here and grew up here have so many companies opening up possibilities for them?” Thangavelu said.
