Elon Musk Clarifies SpaceX Mars Spaceship, Rocket Booster Texas Move Announcement

SpaceX will be building the Starship and Raptor in Texas instead of Los Angeles, according to a recent statement from the launch company. But while it was initially believed that the full-scale vehicles will be developed in the Texas facility, SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk has now clarified that this only applies to the test vehicles.

In a statement released Wednesday, SpaceX said that the company has decided to build and test the Mars spaceship and its rocket booster system in south Texas instead of the originally planned Port of Los Angeles. The move was apparently made to "streamline operations."

However, Musk later said on Twitter that only the prototypes were being put together in Texas, and the actual Starship and Raptor engine will still be built in California. The confusion apparently stemmed from a "miscommunication by SpaceX."

“Starship & Raptor [engine] development is being done out of our HQ in Hawthorne, CA," the SpaceX and Tesla CEO tweeted. "We are building the Starship prototypes locally at our launch site in Texas, as their size makes them very difficult to transport.”

Last week, Musk revealed a photo of the finished Starship Hopper test-flight rocket at the launch company's Boca Chica facility in Texas. This is also where SpaceX will be conducting the upcoming test flight of the prototype in which the vehicle will take off and look to hover 5 kilometers above the ground before landing back on the ground.

The Starship Hopper's Raptor engines will reportedly be test-fired next month. Musk then plans to start test-flights in March or April.

This news comes after SpaceX fired hundreds of its employees over the weekend. Musk and SpaceX COO and President Gwynne Shotwell apparently cut about 10 percent of the company's workforce of over 7,000 people.

“To continue delivering for our customers and to succeed in developing interplanetary spacecraft and a global space-based Internet, SpaceX must become a leaner company," Shotwell said. "Either of these developments, even when attempted separately, have bankrupted other organizations. This means we must part ways with some talented and hardworking members of our team.”

The layoffs were apparently spread across all SpaceX departments, leaving only 6,400 workers.