Construction at the site is scheduled to start in 2027, with the first Starship rocket launch in 2029
Credit: SpaceX/UPI/Alamy
NEED TO KNOW
- SpaceX has announced plans for a $100 billion Starbase in Louisiana, which will create 30,000 jobs and 8,100 indirect jobs
- The site will feature over a dozen towers enabling 30 Starship launches daily and full rocket recovery for reuse, SpaceX says
- Louisiana could become the busiest global hub for next-generation aerospace innovation
Elon Musk‘s rocket company SpaceX has announced plans for its largest launch site yet in Louisiana.
Designed to support “thousands of Starship flights a year with missions launching to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond,” construction at the site is set to begin in 2027.
Per a SpaceX announcement on Tuesday, Aug. 25, the $100 billion project, named Starbase, Louisiana, will expand on the company’s operations beyond its current Texas headquarters and locations in Florida.
Credit: SpaceX/UPI/Shutterstock
The 125,000-acre project will mark a shift for SpaceX and the rocket industry, making Louisiana, which has never before hosted an orbital launch, perhaps the busiest launch hub on the planet, per CNN. The company plans to launch its rockets “thousands” of times a year, it says.
SpaceX says in its announcement that the facility will create 30,000 jobs in the region, near the southern coast of Louisiana’s Vermilion Parish, with an aim of launching its first Starship flight from the base in 2029. In addition, SpaceX also claims that the project will create more than 8,100 new jobs indirectly.
“The historic project will establish Louisiana as a global hub for next-generation aerospace, with the capacity and infrastructure needed to increase launch frequency and expand access to space dramatically,” SpaceX said.
Credit: Brandon Bell/Getty
Starbase, Texas, is the current hub of Starship’s testing and development facilities and the spot from which 13 test flights have launched.
Once operational, SpaceX plans to use the Louisiana location to host flights of the Starship rocket. It also plans to land and recover every piece of the rocket — including the upper spacecraft, which has never been done before — so the rockets can be quickly reused, driving down the cost of each launch.
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These plans will require numerous towers, each standing hundreds of feet tall, used to recapture rockets and spacecraft as they return from space.
“Starbase Louisiana will ultimately have over a dozen launch towers, enabling more than 30 Starship flights per day and making it the biggest launch site on Earth!” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on X on Tuesday.
“SpaceX makes sci-fi real,” the entrepreneur, 55, added.
On Aug. 5, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket crashed into the moon, creating a 60-foot-wide crater. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter captured before-and-after images of the crash site from 60 miles above.
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