Space Exploration Technologies, the Hawthorne-based developer of low-cost experimental rockets, said Wednesday that it was granted an operational licnese by the Air Force for use of the Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on the Florida coast.
Receipt of the license, in conjunction with an approved site plan, paves the way for SpaceX to initiate Falcon 9 launch operations later this year, the company better known as SpaceX said.
The Falcon 9 is much larger than SpaceX's Falcon 1, which the company launches from an island in the Pacific Ocean.
"We are developing Falcon 9 to be a valuable asset to the American space launch fleet," Elon Musk, CEO and CTO, said in a statement. "The support we received from General Helms and the US Air Force has been immensely helpful in developing the pathfinder processes necessary for SpaceX to realize commercial space flights from the Cape."
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