SpaceX to build $100 billion rocket launch facility in southern 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, is an expansion of the company's Starship launch operations beyond South Texas and those planned for Florida as its ​next-generation rocket remains in late-stage ‌development. The company's second Starbase campus will eventually launch thousands of Starship flights a year, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said, reiterating its goals for ⁠an ambitious cadence contingent on solving steep engineering challenges and regulatory hurdles. Construction will begin next year with the first Starship launch in 2029, SpaceX said. 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. Read moreAstrophysicist Jonathan McDowell explains why we need an international space traffic control agency The "self-sustaining" spaceport envisioned by SpaceX will include its own metha...