SpaceX to build $100 billion Starship rocket complex in Louisiana

​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, will expand the company's Starship launch operations beyond South Texas and those planned for Florida. It will eventually launch thousands of Starship flights a year, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said. Construction will begin next year with the first Starship launch in 2029, SpaceX said in a statement. 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.

The "self-sustaining" spaceport 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. SpaceX has significantly expanded its southern U.S. footprint in recent years, having built a Colossus AI data center 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. SECOND STARBASE

The launch site, which will be ​SpaceX's fourth in the U.S., appears to replicate at a larger scale SpaceX's widening footprint in South Texas, site of its first Starbase rocket campus. However, the ⁠Louisiana site will not have rocket production facilities. 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 egg 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.