Elon Musk flies from Moffett Field to Hawthorne the week of SpaceX's Starship static fire

Elon Musk flew from Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View to Jack Northrop Field in Hawthorne on June 4, a 54-minute hop in the Gulfstream G550 N272BG. The flight arrived just after 2:52 a.m. local time, touching down at the airfield adjacent to SpaceX's headquarters and primary manufacturing facility.

The same week, SpaceX is conducting a static-fire test of the Super Heavy booster for the next Starship orbital attempt, per a company webcast schedule published Monday. Hawthorne serves as the nerve center for both Starship engine development and the Starlink satellite program, making Musk's presence routine ahead of major launch milestones.

Musk, who lives near SpaceX's Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas, frequently shuttles between the company's California and Texas sites. The brief late-night flight from Moffett—near Tesla's Palo Alto engineering office and xAI's San Francisco Bay Area operations—suggests a day of meetings before returning to Hawthorne for the week's test preparations.