Space Explorations Technologies Corp. says it could launch its first test flight from Spaceport America by late December.
The Las Cruces Sun-News reports that SpaceX President and CEO Gwynne Shotwell addressed a space symposium in Las Cruces Wednesday.
She said about 25 of SpaceX's more than 3,000 employees will be based temporarily at New Mexico at the spaceport near Truth or Consequences for the test work on the company's Grasshopper rocket.
The 10-story rocket had its final Texas test flight earlier this month.
Shotwell said the New Mexico site is well laid out and that it allows forms of testing that can't be done elsewhere.
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