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Comment by jacobkranz | Hacker News Reader

I was under the impression they can't due to ITARS / it being technically rocket technology. I know EU launches from French Guiana but that's still technically France or at minimum has a deep relation

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French Guiana is just wholly a part of France afaik. Maybe it has some minor special status but it's a proper part of France.

I don't see why SpaceX couldn't launch from there even if it required some kind of special ITAR permission first. It's not like those haven't been made before if needed. SpaceX has launched EU spy satellites anyway and the US used to launch some satellites with Ariane 5 etc. Or am I missing something here? It just seems like it shouldn't be a big deal if SpaceX constructed a launch site in French Guiana or some other country that participates in American space programs.

I think the problem is more logistical. SpaceX does not launch rockets like other companies do. They build them at the launch site and then roll them out and launch them right next to the factory. If they launch from French Guiana they would have to ship the rockets, there, plus build a facility to make repairs and adjustments. It would just be an incredible headache for them.

> I think the problem is more logistical.

Probably since they could always go back to the pacific islands like in the Falcon 1 days, but logistics to there are even worse.

Elon Musk has stated that launch pad/landing tower complex is just as important and difficult to build as the rocket. And that building the manufacturing factories and the processes to build one rocket a week is even much harder. Having the factory and launch site at the same location is a huge plus especially given SpaceX's philosophy of quick iteration.

Puerto Rico then maybe? Though weather, infrastructure, and lack of employees willing to move there could be an issue.

Don't know that the weather would be any worse than in Boca

Let's repurpose Guantanamo Bay

The rockets are built at the site they're launched from, they'd need to rebuild all that infrastructure. They're already doing this at KSC and have been for the past year or more now.

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