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Los Angeles has been a center of American aerospace since the 1940s. Today the greater LA area, from Hawthorne to El Segundo to Long Beach, is a NewSpace hub: SpaceX's Hawthorne factory, Rocket Lab and Relativity Space in Long Beach, and the Space Force's Space Systems Command at Los Angeles Air Force Base in El Segundo.
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Hawthorne, CA: SpaceX's long-time headquarters and rocket factory; the company has since moved its headquarters to Starbase, Texas
El Segundo: federally funded R&D center supporting Space Force and NRO
Los Angeles AFB: responsible for acquiring and operating military space systems
Long Beach: Electron and Neutron rockets, Photon spacecraft
Pasadena: NASA center managed by Caltech, planetary science and Mars rovers
| Company | Focus Area | Profile |
|---|---|---|
| SpaceX (Hawthorne factory) | Falcon 9 and Dragon production | View profile |
| Rocket Lab | Small/medium launch, spacecraft | View profile |
| Boeing Space (El Segundo) | Satellites | View profile |
| Raytheon (El Segundo) | Space sensors, missile warning | View profile |
| Relativity Space | 3D-printed rockets (Terran R) | View profile |
| Long Wall | Missile defense (formerly ABL Space Systems; exited commercial launch in late 2024 and rebranded in February 2025) | View profile |
Browse all space industry jobs for live openings, and see space industry salaries for BLS pay by role and city.
Key facilities include SpaceX Hawthorne, The Aerospace Corporation, Space Systems Command (SSC). Los Angeles is a major hub for commercial space operations.
Typical roles include Propulsion Engineer, Avionics Engineer, Manufacturing Engineer, Software Engineer, Structures Engineer. Current openings are on the SpaceNexus jobs board, synced daily from employers' own careers pages.
Rocket Lab and Relativity headquartered in Long Beach; SpaceX's main factory in Hawthorne. JPL: NASA's premier planetary science and robotics center.
Facts on this page were checked against these pages on October 10, 2026. Figures without a named source were removed.
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