Space Exploration Technologies Corp., based in Hawthorne, will soon move the development and production its Starship test vehicle to its plant in South Texas. The Starship program will remain in California.

Eva Behrend, spokeswoman for SpaceX, confirmed the move Jan. 16, citing the company’s need “to streamline operations.”

“SpaceX is developing will test the Starship test vehicle at our site in South Texas. This decision does not impact our current manufacture, design, and launch operations in Hawthorne and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Additionally, SpaceX will continue recovery operations of our reusable Falcon rockets and Dragon spacecraft at the Port of Los Angeles.”

L.A. City Councilmember Joe Buscanino lamented the move via Twitter. “While I feel crushed about SpaceX pulling the Super Heavy out of the Port of L.A., I feel confident that other innovators will see the huge value they get in San Pedro.” Buscanino added that “We are well on our way toward creating an innovation district and Silicon Harbor where you can take a water taxi or a Bird or Lime scooter to work. Elon Musk saw the value, others will too.”

On Twitter, Musk wrote, “Starship and Raptor development is being done out of our headquarters in Hawthorne. We are building the Starship prototypes locally at our launch site in Texas, as their size makes them very difficult to transport.”

Tech reporter Samson Amore can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 556-8335. Follow him on Twitter @samsonamore.