section_path: Facilities/McGregor, TX: Rocket Development and Test Facility
section_name: McGregor, TX: Rocket Development and Test Facility
paragraph_text: McGregor, TX: Rocket Development and Test Facility
  
  SpaceX's Rocket Development and Test Facility in McGregor, Texas is a rocket engine test facility. Every rocket engine and thruster manufactured by SpaceX must pass through McGregor for final testing being used on flight missions. The facility also serves as a testing ground for various components and engines during the research and development process. In addition to engine testing, after splashdown and recovery, Dragon spacecraft make a stop at McGregor to have their hazardous hypergolic propellant fuels removed, before the capsules continue on to Hawthorne for refurbishment.
  
  SpaceX calls the facility the most advanced and active rocket engine test facility in the world, and said that as of 2024, over 7,000 tests had been conducted at the facility since it opened, with seven engine test fires on a typical day, across more than a dozen test stands. Despite its low-profile compared to the company's other facilities, is a critical part of SpaceX's operations, and company president and COO Gwynne Shotwell maintains her primary office in McGregor.
  
  Originally the site of the Bluebonnet Ordnance Plant during World War II, the facility was later used by Beal Aerospace before being leased by SpaceX in 2003. The company has since expanded it significantly from 256 acres (104 ha) in 2003 to 4,000 acres (1,600 ha) by 2015. In July 2021, SpaceX announced plans to build a second production facility for Raptor engines at McGregor. This expansion is expected to significantly increase SpaceX's production capacity, with the goal of producing 800 to 1,000 Raptor engines per year.