SpaceX Plans to Build a $100 Billion Spaceport In Louisiana

SpaceX Plans to Build a $100 Billion Spaceport In Louisiana (cnbc.com) 28 SpaceX plans to spend up to $100 billion building a new Starship launch facility in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, which the state says could eventually "support thousands of launches annually." CNBC reports: Once built, Starbase, LA will serve as the main launch facility for Starship, SpaceX's in-development rocket that's the largest ever built and designed to be fully reusable. Musk has aspirations to massively expand SpaceX's Starlink satellite network, to launch orbital data centers and to someday colonize Mars. Those ambitions, and justification for SpaceX's nearly $2 trillion market cap, hinge on the success of Starship. SpaceX said, in a video posted to its website on Tuesday, that the search for a site to build launch pads and have access to ample fuel for its operations took about seven years. Musk said in the video that the company would bring "probably 10,000 really exciting jobs" to Louisiana with the spaceport. A fact sheet posted online by the state of Louisiana said SpaceX is expected to generate an estimated "3,000 direct new jobs over the next 10 years" in the state, and "8,100 indirect new jobs." SpaceX said it would work on a "historic coastal restoration" in Louisiana, in partnership with the state to "bring the marsh back" and ensure the wetlands around its new facility will have "storm protection." SpaceX said, in a video posted to its website on Tuesday, that the search for a site to build launch pads and have access to ample fuel for its operations took about seven years. Musk said in the video that the company would bring "probably 10,000 really exciting jobs" to Louisiana with the spaceport. A fact sheet posted online by the state of Louisiana said SpaceX is expected to generate an estimated "3,000 direct new jobs over the next 10 years" in the state, and "8,100 indirect new jobs." SpaceX said it would work on a "historic coastal restoration" in Louisiana, in partnership with the state to "bring the marsh back" and ensure the wetlands around its new facility will have "storm protection." Took 7 years but... (Score:1) Re: (Score:2) Re: (Score:2, Flamebait) steel penis Angry inch Californian watching the cool shit not happen in California anymore. Re: Took 7 years but... (Score:2) He can rest easy with the knowledge that we're actively trying to make billionaires leave this state, which will somehow make things better here because reasons. Re: (Score:2) Apparently this has been going on for decades and yet somehow California is still by far the richest state. Re: (Score:2) Oh no! Not the billionaires! What ever will we do without them? Re: (Score:2) steel penis Angry inch Californian watching the cool shit not happen in California anymore. How can I eloquently put this, while remaining on point. California fucked itself. Hard. Re: (Score:2) And yet people have not fled the state and it's still the 4th largest economy in the world. California is big on worker protections while Texas is removing them. https://www.texastribune.org/2... [texastribune.org] Re: Took 7 years but... (Score:3) That's an interesting theory considering SpaceX is still actively building new facilities in Texas, including what is the largest PCB factory in the world, and what will likely be the largest solar panel factory in the world. I think it's more likely due to the fact that Louisiana just happens to have a big, wide open terrain much more suitable for a high-volume spaceport than Texas does. Starbase isn't intended to be high volume, it's intended for research and development. I don't know if you've ever been ne Re: (Score:2, Interesting) including what is the largest PCB factory in the world, and what will likely be the largest solar panel factory in the world Don't forget the Terafab in Grimes TX. Looking at the decision, it really makes a lot of sense. The coast of Louisiana has been a nexus of transport in the US since before it became the US. Obviously, there is the Gulf of America (hehe) plus the Mississippi river. That led to a convergence of several interstate roads. Plus, there is ample barely drained low value land with sparse population, and no risk that it will see a bunch of sub/exburbs sprout up in the foreseeable future. The state government, Re: (Score:2) References I could find say they want to build a 10GW solar panel factory, which if accurate wouldn't even make the top 10 world wide. Most of the larger ones are in China, but the Canadian Solar one is also larger than that. Couldn't find data for the PCB factory, but I'd be very surprised if it was anything like the scale of the Chinese ones. Speaking of, they are launching from barges off-shore, due to geography. Has the additional benefit of not destroying the launch complex when the rocket explodes. Re: Took 7 years but... (Score:2) This is great for polar launches in particular (Score:4, Informative) Although the site provides a rather large range of launch inclinations, even down to ~25 degrees if you dogleg around the Florida keys, the real price here is polar launches. You launch South, and the booster comes in over open water for the catch. You wait 12 hours for the Earth to make half a rotation under your ship's orbit, and then you come in for a ship catch from the South, thus alleviating any problematic land overflights. This is particularly interesting for shipping cargo to a South Polar Basin base on the Moon; a polar orbit on Earth translates beautifully to a polar orbit around the Moon, from where you can land straight in the Aitkin polar basin. Nice choice Elmo (Score:2) What with Louisiana's deep care for the environment, a little bit more....actually, a lot bit more pollution from Elmo will be welcome. Louisiana does not need any healthy residents as long as the money flows. Re: Nice choice Elmo (Score:2) Just keep adding star bases to states and he can install all the puppet presidents he wants. "built and designed to be fully reusable" (Score:3) Just like in Texas (Score:3) in partnership with the state to "bring the marsh back" and ensure the wetlands around its new facility will have "storm protection." Meanwhile, he's dumping tens of thousands of industrial wastewater discharge into wetlands [npr.org] around his Texas facility and doesn't even get a slap on the wrist. And now he wants to destroy more wetland acreage [houstonchronicle.com] while still claiming he's trying to save humanity [androidheadlines.com]. Then there is the damage his launches are causing [texastribune.org] to local residences above and beyond the obvious noise. The other thing to look out for is how close to "those" people will this launch site be? He's already polluting the atmosphere around his data center in Memphis by illegally using gas turbines [cnbc.com] to power the place. Or will the regime step in and wave their hand saying there's no issue [yahoo.com] since the people being affected aren't the right kind of people? Re: (Score:2) Re: (Score:2) You mean the site whose water discharge processes were indeed certified shortly after that article in 2025? https://www.faa.gov/media/9434... [faa.gov] Water discharge is covered in section 3.2.7, fyi. Re: (Score:2) What is certified and what happens in practice are two very different things. Let me guess (Score:2) The politicians have strapped on their knee pads and will offer zero taxes on everything. In a bottom tier state that desperately needs funding. Corruption (Score:1) How much is the state paying them in (Score:2) wat (Score:2) SpaceX said it would work on a "historic coastal restoration" in Louisiana, in partnership with the state to "bring the marsh back" So far SpaceX has ecologically been a net negative. This statement features negative credibility.