SpaceX Unveils $100 Billion ‘Starbase Louisiana’ Bigger Than Its Texas Launch Site
SpaceX unveiled plans Tuesday to build a $100 billion Starship launch complex on Louisiana’s Gulf Coast, a sprawling 125,000-acre spaceport designed to be fully self-sufficient, with its own fuel production, power infrastructure and deep-water shipping facilities to support thousands of rocket launches a year.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and SpaceX executives announced the project at an event in Vermilion Parish, where the company will build the facility on a former Exxon property on Pecan Island. Named “Starbase, Louisiana” after SpaceX’s Texas launch site, the campus will become the company’s fourth and largest launch complex, surpassing its operations in Texas and Florida.
The scale of the project sets it apart from a typical launch pad. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said the company is building a spaceport with on-site propellant production, power generation, deep-water shipping capability, vehicle processing facilities and likely an airport. The complex will house five twin-tower structures totaling 10 launch pads, each with its own fuel farm, effectively turning the site into an industrial hub built around rocket manufacturing and flight.
A Bigger Bet Than a Launch Pad
The Louisiana campus is intended to relieve pressure on SpaceX’s existing Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, which the company says has become too small for its ambitions. Shotwell said the search for a location with adequate land, fuel access and shipping capacity took nearly seven years. Construction is set to begin in 2027, with the first Starship launch from the site targeted for 2029, though Louisiana’s economic development office has offered a more conservative timeline.
The facility is central to SpaceX’s plan to dramatically increase Starship’s launch cadence, supporting the company’s expansion of its Starlink satellite network, ambitions to launch orbital data center satellites, and longer-term goals tied to Mars exploration.
Economic Impact for Louisiana
Louisiana Economic Development estimates the project will generate 3,000 direct jobs over the next decade, with an average annual salary of $92,600, plus more than 8,100 indirect jobs. In a video posted to SpaceX’s website, Elon Musk put the figure higher, telling viewers the spaceport would bring “probably 10,000 really exciting jobs” to the state.
To secure the deal, Louisiana offered SpaceX an incentives package tied to capital investment and job creation, along with access to the state’s Aerospace Facilities and Activities Rebate and High Impact Jobs programs. The agreement also requires a $25 million charitable donation to the Community Foundation of Acadiana. Earlier this year, Landry signed legislation exempting some aerospace projects from public review and making unauthorized entry into a spaceport a felony.
Regulatory and Environmental Scrutiny Ahead
The project will still need to clear extensive environmental, wetlands and launch-related reviews before construction can proceed, a process that took nearly a decade for SpaceX’s smaller Texas complex. The company has faced community backlash, lawsuits and fines over environmental violations at Boca Chica, including a 2024 finding that its water deluge system discharged pollutants into nearby Texas waterways.
Starship itself remains under development and has yet to reach orbit. SpaceX is preparing for the rocket’s 14th test flight as soon as September, a mission the company hopes will mark its first successful orbital attempt.
