SpaceX to Build $100B Starbase Spaceport in Louisiana, Creating 3,000+ Jobs
SpaceX – Starbase, LA
SpaceX announces plans for Starbase, Louisiana, a new spaceport on the Gulf Coast designed to support thousands of Starship flights annually. The company will invest at least $100 billion and create over 3,000 jobs, while also committing to coastal restoration efforts in a region facing severe erosion.
We launch the majority of the world’s useful mass to space.
- tristanj
So this is official after months of speculation. Local realtors called this back in May https://x.com/SERobinsonJr/status/2051440979878559829
, and Ars Technica covered these rumors earlier this month https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/08/spacex-is-set-to-acqui... .
The Louisiana location has two major benefits:
Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO) Access: Launches into SSO have a launch angle of ~98° relative to the equator (i.e. south), and launching from Louisiana gives a direct launch corridor over the Gulf of America without crossing major cities.
SpaceX plans to launch millions of datacenter satellites in SSO, so this is the perfect launch site for their use case. SSO launches from their existing launch sites (Boca Chica and Cape Canaveral) would overfly land.
Existing Methane pipelines: They are next to existing Gulf Coast natural gas/LNG infra, making bulk liquid methane delivery significantly easier. Currently for Starbase, there are no pipelines and methane is shipped in via truck. Delivering the ~1,000 metric tons of methane required for a single Starship launch requires 50-60 tanker truck deliveries.
- chasd00
Man if this actually starts to happen it's a good time to be a welder, concrete worker, or any general contractor or tradesman in Louisiana. Coastal Louisiana is some of the poorest areas in the US even more so than the valley in Texas where Starbase Texas is located. Probably 10-20 years worth of solid work building out that site.
- ianm218
It’s easy to be pessimistic about Musk timelines/ big tech but I am thrilled that ambitious, real world, hard projects are happening in the US again.
- cwal37
I wonder if anyone read the copy on this page or if it mostly came out of an LLM.
The "Restoring the shoreline" and Rebuilding the marshlands" paragraphs below the images are almost exactly the same. The first sentence is exactly the same.
- mrtnmcc
A way to get back at Texas for datacenter restrictions?
Ten pads and thousands of flights per year sure will accelerate Golden Dome, err... I mean "going to Mars"
- dylan604
From the hype video, it looks like they will be building towers in pairs. Hard to tell the distances, but if one explodes on the pad, will it's pair be in the blast radius? I'm guessing the plane will be to have a launch on one them and then move to the other for a faster launch cadence?
- BugsJustFindMe
> Building a new space coast
But are they building it ghost to ghost?
- rbanffy
Look! Flame trenches, the kind Elon said were useless because he had a better idea - that inverted shower floor.
- fig781
I definitely read this as Starbucks. Boy was I surprised when I clicked on the link
- kemotep
It’s hard to imagine that Cocoa Beach/Titusville isn’t receptive to this. I guess it’s probably cheaper? They don’t have to share the airspace with NASA and other launch companies and it becomes a fully owned and operated Freeport for Musk’s ventures.