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Elon Musk tweeted this after the early morning successful landing of another booster on a barge:

May need to increase size of rocket storage hangar

How big is their rocket storage hanger at the Cape? There are 3 boosters there currently to my knowledge, plus 1-2 being prepared for launch, but I'm curious what the full capacity actually is.

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The storage hangar at Launch Complex 39A at the Cape according theverge.com, can store in total up to five boosters at once. Looking to the SpaceX successful landings, it rises the possibilities to have more consecutive 1st stage landings sooner then they thought. Imagining the time when Falcon Heavy will be operational, then a new storage hangar or an increased size of the current one will be needed.

Spacex storage hangar SpaceX storage hangar at Launch Complex 39A in Cape Canaveral.

Spacex storage hangar inside view Inside view of the SpaceX storage hangar at Launch Complex 39A in Cape Canaveral.

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  • $\begingroup$ Does that count the ones being prepared? $\endgroup$
    – PearsonArtPhoto ♦
    May 6, 2016 at 20:59
  • $\begingroup$ Yes it is the total number. At Wikipedia for KSC Launch Complex 39 in Capabilities paragraph and in this link which is as a reference: (spaceflightnow.com/news/n1404/15pad39a/#.Vy0UQSF3OGa) in a declaration of Shotwell, you can find that the hangar near the pad serves as a place for launch vehicles to be assembled horizontally before transferring to the pad, and then lifting atop a launch platform for liftoff. So it serves for this procedure for both types of boosters (prepared before & the recovered one). Before launch pad all types should be stored there first. $\endgroup$
    – Mark777
    May 6, 2016 at 22:34
  • $\begingroup$ That being the case, they really are near capacity, with only 1 spare slot open... They really need to ship the ORBCOMM one back to SpaceX HQ... Still, that can't be the case, they have to have enough to store the 3 heavy cores being prepared, 3 when landed, and another one or two, I'd be surprised if it was less than 8... As F-Heavy is coming soon... $\endgroup$
    – PearsonArtPhoto ♦
    May 6, 2016 at 23:29
  • $\begingroup$ What do you mean with 3 heavy cores being prepared? Do you mean 3 boosters of Falcon Heavy first flight? Because they are under construction at Hawthorne California in this way thats why they are planing a new hangar to be ready until November to include Falcon Heavy before launching and its recovered boosters if will made successful landings $\endgroup$
    – Mark777
    May 7, 2016 at 0:54
  • $\begingroup$ Yes, that was what I was thinking. I found an article that confirmed that there is only room for 5 including processing, which means they are going to be having some difficulties with logistics for a while... $\endgroup$
    – PearsonArtPhoto ♦
    May 7, 2016 at 14:42

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