SpaceX unveiled plans on Tuesday to build its largest rocket launch complex yet in southern Louisiana, a $100 billion effort to transform coastal wetlands into a critical base for the company’s Starship and AI satellite launch ambitions.
The 125,000-acre (50,585-hectare) site on Pecan Island, which SpaceX named Starbase Louisiana, is an expansion of the company’s Starship launch operations beyond South Texas and those planned for Florida as its next-generation rocket remains in late-stage development.
The company’s second Starbase campus will eventually launch thousands of Starship flights a year, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said, reiterating its goals for an ambitious cadence contingent on solving steep engineering challenges and regulatory hurdles.
Construction will begin next year with the first Starship launch in 2029, SpaceX said.
Shotwell detailed the plans near the proposed site in Louisiana’s Vermilion Parish at an event with Governor Jeff Landry and other senior state officials.
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The «self-sustaining» spaceport envisioned by SpaceX will include its own methane production for propellant, power generation, deep-water shipping capabilities to transport Starships from Texas, vehicle processing facilities, and probably an airport, Shotwell said.
The marshland site is more than eight times the size of Manhattan. Shotwell said «very large portions» of the land will remain natural wetlands with no infrastructure, while an animated SpaceX video showed the area dotted with several launch pads surrounded by greenery.
The site had been at the center of a decade-long lawsuit against ExxonMobil brought by local parishes alleging the oil major’s coastal drilling and canal dredging contributed to the state’s wetland loss. The state reached an agreement with Exxon to settle the lawsuit in June, prompting its dismissal the following month, a court order shows.
That cleared the way for SpaceX‘s launch plans for the 18-mile (29-km) coastal strip, which the company had beendiscussing with the state since February, Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Susan Bourgeois said.
SpaceX has significantly expanded its southern US footprint in recent years, having built Colossus AI data centers in Tennessee and Mississippi and Starlink facilities in Austin, Texas. It is planning a chip plant in central Texas.
«This project means more than just steel, technology, and capital,» Landry said. «It represents jobs for our families. It represents momentum for our communities, and it represents protection for our coast.»
SpaceX said the Louisiana site will add more than 3,000 jobs to the region. The governor’s office said those jobs are expected to pay an average salary of $92,600, or 192% higher than the average wage in Vermilion Parish.
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SECOND STARBASE
The launch site, which will be SpaceX’s fourth in the US appears to replicate at a larger scale its widening footprint in South Texas, site of its first Starbase rocket campus. However, the Louisiana site will not have rocket production facilities.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sees Starship as central to the company’s goals of expanding its Starlink constellation and eventually deploying up to 1 million AI data-processing satellites in orbit. The rocket also plays a key role in NASA‘s Artemis moon program.
Pecan Island is situated in a geographically convenient location for Musk’s satellite ambitions. It allows a rocket to launch south over the Gulf waters and into a sun-synchronous orbit that offers plenty of sunlight for solar-powered AI satellites.
Starbase Texas is Starship’s only active launch site as the rocket remains in development, while SpaceX builds two Starship pads in Florida next to its flagship Falcon 9 launch pads. The company also has Falcon 9 launch facilities at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
As SpaceX developed Boca Chica, Texas, into the company town of Starbase with support from local government officials, it has faced resistance from residents concerned about water, environmental and noise pollution and pressure to sell their land.
Shotwell highlighted environmental plans and outlined efforts to restore Pecan Island’s receding marshlands and coastline, which act as a natural buffer to protect inland areas from flooding during heavy rainfall.
Pecan Island is a protected hub for dozens of migratory bird species seasonally traveling throughout the Western Hemisphere.
At Starbase Texas, Starship launches have blasted shorebirds and their nests with gravel and debris, according to environmental groups.
«The birds might fly away during a launch, but I guarantee they come back,» Shotwell said, prompting applause from state officials. «As soon as the rocket’s gone, the birds come back. It’s not like months later.»
She said SpaceX will help fund environmental «protection, restoration, and stewardship» while the launch site is constructed.
(FRANCE 24 with AP)
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