By Stephen Witt / Los Angeles County Politics
Elon Musk may have become the world’s first trillionaire last week when SpaceX completed the largest initial public offering in American history — but even as the company’s headquarters now sit in Texas, it is quietly deepening its footprint in the South Bay.
SpaceX’s original Hawthorne campus at 1 Rocket Road — a converted Northrop/Boeing aerospace plant the company has called home since 2008 — remains the heart of its core rocket business. From here, the company continues to manufacture both its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy reusable rockets and Dragon spacecraft.
The company employs more than 6,000 people in Hawthorne and recently expanded with a $22 million purchase of a 6-acre parcel on Wilkie Avenue. SpaceX did not respond to LACP’s requests for comment on its plans for Hawthorne by the deadline, but did post a help-wanted ad on LinkedIn seeking someone with political juice at the local and statewide levels.
“The Government Affairs Manager will lead Government Affairs for SpaceX and SpaceXAI in Hawthorne, CA for a variety of intersecting business functions, including local and state government relationships, community and business relations, and educational outreach,” the posting said.
SpaceX is not the only aerospace name making Hawthorne arguably the state’s new aerospace valley.
The municipality has also seen the expansion of Archer Aviation, a builder of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, which agreed to pay $126 million to assume a 75% interest in non-runway operations at Hawthorne Municipal Airport through 2055.
“Archer has taken control of daily operations at Hawthorne Airport and its real estate footprint after completing the first phase of the acquisition,” an Archer spokesperson said in comments emailed to LACP. “In addition to daily airport operations, we’re focused on establishing it as the central hub for our planned Los Angeles air taxi network ahead of the 2028 Olympic Games. In the near term, Hawthorne will serve primarily as our operational testing and iteration base where we develop and refine the procedures, infrastructure, and systems that will support commercial air taxi operations.”
The spokesperson said Hawthorne is where Archer plans to test and iterate across all elements of what a future air taxi network looks like, including the AI and software systems that will underpin it, with the company focused on building the AI foundation for next-generation aviation technologies such as air traffic management, movement control, and route planning.
“In practical terms, Hawthorne gives us a real-world environment to develop and validate those systems before deploying them at scale,” the spokesperson said. “As for broader collaboration with Hawthorne-based aerospace companies — Hawthorne has an extraordinary concentration of innovative aerospace firms. We see that ecosystem as one of the reasons Hawthorne is the right location for our LA hub.”
The Archer spokesperson said the company is committed to building a meaningful local presence in Hawthorne, and it expects its operations to generate local employment across a range of roles, including pilots, technicians, ground operations staff, and infrastructure roles.
Meanwhile, City of Hawthorne spokesperson Jennifer Vaughn noted that despite relocating its formal corporate headquarters to Starbase, Texas, SpaceX’s Hawthorne campus at 1 Rocket Road remains Hawthorne’s largest employer.
“While we do not have specific workforce development or educational partnerships formalized with SpaceX at this time, the City of Hawthorne remains committed to a collaborative future. Our city is open to all opportunities for investment and partnership that benefit our residents, workforce, and students,” said Vaughn.
Asked what SpaceX’s continued presence and growth into AI and orbital technology means for Hawthorne’s future, Vaughn said the pivot toward an IPO, coupled with an expansion into orbital technology and AI integration, means Hawthorne is no longer just a traditional manufacturing town.
“It cements the community’s status as a global hub for cutting-edge aerospace intelligence, ensuring that the city remains at the forefront of the next generation of technology rather than relying on legacy 20th-century defense contracts,” she said.
