SpaceX announced Tuesday it will invest at least $100 billion to build a new Starship launch complex on Louisiana’s Gulf Coast that would be far larger than its South Texas headquarters.
Company president Gwynne Shotwell and Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry unveiled Starbase, Louisiana at an event in Abbeville. The planned 125,000-acre site near Pecan Island in Vermilion Parish would sit on former Exxon coastal land about 50 miles south of Lafayette.
SpaceX said the self-sustaining spaceport would include propellant production, power generation, vehicle processing, deep-water shipping and likely an airport. At full buildout, the company said the campus would have five launch complexes with two pads each. Elon Musk said on X that it would ultimately include more than a dozen launch towers and enable more than 30 Starship flights a day.
We projected the recently released renderings of Starbase, Lousiana, to provide a sense of the sheer scale of the project.
— IGW (@interstellargw) August 26, 2026
SpaceX's plan depicted consists of ten launch sites, in five pairs. Each pair is about 1.5mi (2.5km) apart.
The production site is over 2km long, and the… pic.twitter.com/falD6wRB0h
Construction is expected to begin in 2027, with a first launch targeted as soon as 2029, according to SpaceX and Louisiana Economic Development. LED said the project would create 3,000 direct jobs over 10 years at an average salary of $92,600, plus more than 8,100 indirect jobs. Shotwell said hiring could grow closer to 10,000, with most new employees coming from nearby communities.
The Louisiana site would add a third major Starship hub alongside Starbase in South Texas, where the rockets are built and tested, and planned pads in Florida. SpaceX said the extra room and access to natural gas would support high-cadence launches of Starlink and planned orbital data-center satellites.
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!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 25, 2026
SpaceX makes sci-fi real. https://t.co/C7Ht0U12ba
LED called the project the largest capital investment in state history. As part of the incentive package, SpaceX agreed to a $25 million charitable donation to the Community Foundation of Acadiana, a $20 million upfront payment to local governments and annual payments that officials said would exceed $645 million over 25 years.
SpaceX said it would leave most of the acreage undeveloped and work with state and federal agencies on shoreline protection and wetland restoration. The company said Pecan Island and nearby wetlands are high-value habitat for migratory birds.
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