SpaceX Plans to Build a $100 Billion Spaceport In Louisiana (cnbc.com) 109
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, Insightful)
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Re: Took 7 years but... (Score:4, Insightful)
Apparently this has been going on for decades and yet somehow California is still by far the richest state.
California gets a piece of all the offshoring (Score:2)
Apparently this has been going on for decades and yet somehow California is still by far the richest state.
It just geography. California benefits from all the offshoring to Asia and the shipping of goods to the USA. Its the importer taking a cut.
Re: California gets a piece of all the offshoring (Score:3)
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Oh, you mean the industry made great by *engineers*, that was taken over by Friendmanite* MBAs?
* ROI isn't just everything, it's the only thing
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Re: Took 7 years but... (Score:2)
Yes, obviously the billionaire tax passed decades ago. Sergei Brin et al moved to Miami decades ago. I must be doing what you like to do: Create disinformation, deny reality. Clearly, nothing to see here.
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Oh no! Not the billionaires! What ever will we do without them?
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You need to hit the restroom, you're so full of bullshit.
Middle class where the money is? Owning a house is *exactly* the same as having money (I pay part 1 of my property taxes next month, and I do NOT have the money this house is allegedly worth)?
Meanwhile, your homework is to see how many billionaires, and how many billion and trillion dollar companies paid ANY income tax.
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Wealth has nothing to do with liquidity. Neither the paper billionaire or the paper millionaire.
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i assure you when you not only tax the billionaires at a relatively high rate, but also successfully tax their companies, both of which are notorious for avoiding taxes with any loophole they can exploit, the numbers will vastly exceed the taxes paid by mere single digit millionaires. people with less than 10 million are not the problem, 1 million isn't even very much.
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i assure you ...
Actually, your argument is based on a debunked myth.
...
"Almost all empirical claims about high-income earners shirking their tax burden trace back to Piketty, Saez, and Zucman, and their push for a new “wealth tax” on unrealized capital gains from the stock and property holdings of the wealthy.
In short, Zucman both accentuates the tax rates paid by low-income earners and artificially suppresses the rates paid by the ultra-wealthy. When compared to conventional measures such as the CBO or al
Re: Paying higher taxes to make up for the shortfa (Score:2)
Lolol. They own 90% of everything, they get rich from regulatory capture to begin with, then they cry about being asked to pay 70% of taxes. And there's always some tool they wouldn't even bother to spit on to show their disdain there to defend them
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How many rich folks have fled NYC since the new mayor took office? To quote Dean Wormer "zero. point. zero."
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How many rich folks have fled NYC since the new mayor took office? To quote Dean Wormer "zero. point. zero."
Thanks for providing another example. The Governor of New York had to bail out NYC to meet this year's budget, let alone next years. So now all New York State residents, covering all taxable income levels, are subsidizing the new mayor.
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Also worth keeping in mind what exactly the "Billionaire Tax" aka Prop 40 is about.
This is a state ballot proposition that is once again put forth by the SEIU United Healthcare Workers West (UHW) union. Nominally this tax is meant to replace Medicaid dollars destined for California that the Trump administration is cutting, which might also cut healthcare staffing/union jobs.
I am as pro-union as the next 'libtard' but the SEIU UHW is merrily gambling the rest of the State's livelihood for their own narrow
Re: Took 7 years but... (Score:2)
You're right, what have billionaires ever done for anybody? Nothing! They just soak up more of that finite supply of cash each time the s&p rises. As soon as they move into the neighborhood, everybody around them gets poorer and poorer.
Re: Took 7 years but... (Score:2)
Weird, you don't usually say things which are literally true.
Buy the book not the t-shirt ... (Score:1, Offtopic)
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.
Buy and read Che Guevara's book, don't just buy the t-shirt. In the book he explains how comfortable people tend not to embrace the revolution. So the revolutionary must destroy their comfort so they become more open to revolution. The pain inflicted is irrelevant, its just the necessary cost for revolution.
When you understand the above, the politics of the far left makes more sense. It's part of destroying the current system so a replacement can be introduced, ie the revolution. Fixing the current syste
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Sure, reading a single book from an Argentine revolutionary will crystallize the goals of a diverse group of Americans.
"second-in-command, and played a pivotal role in the two-year guerrilla campaign which deposed the Batista regime [Cuban Revolution]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
"it became a reference for thousands of guerrilla fighters in various countries around the world. The book draws upon Guevara's personal experience as a guerrilla soldier during the Cuban Revolution, generalizing for readers who would undertake guerrilla warfare in their own countries. The book identifies reasons and prerequisites for, and
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Is there anything wrong with learning about Marx or Guevara?
Re: Buy the book not the t-shirt ... (Score:2)
There is for people like drnb happy with an oppressive status quo who don't want it threatened
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There is for people like drnb happy with an oppressive status quo who don't want it threatened
Trump was kicked out of office in 2020, a moderate democrat chosen to replace him. Too bad he wasn't really a moderate anymore.
As bad as you IMAGINE things in the USA today, things are far worse under folks like Che. Perhaps you could speak to some Cuban and Venezuelan immigrants and learn the truth of their revolutions.
Re: Buy the book not the t-shirt ... (Score:2)
Because socialists never oppressed anybody. All those people in the gulag were just counter-revolutionaries. Everybody knows that individual liberties mean somebody, somewhere, might profit off of something, which is oppressive.
But seriously, a government wanting to get rid of cyclosporiasis isn't what I consider to be oppressive. Don't worry, nobody is coming for your scat porn collection.
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Is there anything wrong with learning about Marx or Guevara?
Absolutely nothing wrong in studying them. The problem is in implementing some of Che's ideas. For example bringing death and misery to people who are content with a current government, who do not desire his revolution. And no he was not referring to the wealthy, he was specifically referring to peasants who were content and not being abused. In his teachings it was the revolutionaries duty to attack military and police in such a content area to create an atmosphere of reprisals and overreactions that would
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I'd rather expose them, point out their endgame is not universal healthcare. That's just the pretext of the day used to acquire power. Their goal is radical political revolution, and they are honestly admitting that at the m
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It's so easy to reduce others' intentions to suit your pet theory
Its not my pet theory, its their stated goal.
Just because you can't imagine a working universal healthcare system within America ...
I can imagine numerous such ways, none of which requires removing the Senate and making the Supreme Court and President subordinate to the House as the DSA, the House a one party entity. Again, you conflate a pretext for a vote with the long term goal of a group. doesn't mean that everyone who does has some ulterior motive. There are people that want everyone to have access to healthcare without a "radical political revolution".
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Fixing the current system is not desirable, it won't bring about the revolution, in fact it will prevent it, and is therefore undesirable.
In my experience, revolutionary fervor mostly arises from the "current system" being openly and vigilantly averse to being "fixed".
Many of us saw what was coming in the US 25 years ago and more. My voice - given that it's Canadian - meant nothing when after 9/11 happened I started referring to The Department of Fatherland Security. The incipient Fascism was obvious at that point, and even much farther back than that it was obvious to many folks where all this was headed.
Many Americans realized what was comi
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In my experience, revolutionary fervor mostly arises from the "current system" being openly and vigilantly averse to being "fixed".
It depends, for a revolutionary desiring to fix a social problem, yes. But there are also revolutionaries who seek to replace a system of government. To the latter, the current system is unacceptable regardless of how "fixable" it is. Hence the irredeemable concept in modern marxist leaning US academia.
The incipient Fascism ...
Has been in far greater display in Canada.
"Ontario judge orders RCMP and TD Bank to release records tied to freezing Freedom Convoy protester Evan Blackman’s bank accounts.
Government’s use of
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the politics of the far left makes more sense. It's part of destroying the current system so a replacement can be introduced, ie the revolution.
You say that with absolutely zero sense of irony.
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the politics of the far left makes more sense. It's part of destroying the current system so a replacement can be introduced, ie the revolution.
You say that with absolutely zero sense of irony.
Just a sense of history watching the far left work to that end since the 1960s/70s. First through violent direct action in those years, and then going underground after losing support with the end of the vietnam war and working from the inside. In particular in academia.
In reality, the current system is changeable without revolution, Perhaps you did not notice, but Trump was thrown out of office in 2020 and a supposed moderate democrat elected. Too bad he no longer was a moderate.
Re: Took 7 years but... (Score:2)
Yeah, we should surround ourselves with billionaires and hope it trickles down on us all.
Re: Took 7 years but... (Score:2)
Indeed -- historically, taxes aimed at and promised only to affect the wealthy have a strange way of tricking down to the rest of us. Like federal income taxes, for example. Meanwhile, the national debt continues to rise. So the obvious solution is more taxes for the wealthy, which induces more spending, so those taxes then trickle down to the rest of us to make up for it, then you complain about how the rich aren't paying their fair share according to your own arbitrary definition of what fair means, so mo
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I had this crazy idea once -- what if we just balance the budget instead of adding more taxes? Crazy talk, right? Obviously, more taxes is the only sensible approach.
Republicans control all three branches of government. What’s stopping you?
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Republicans control all three branches of government. What’s stopping you?
Immigrants, Communists, Biden's economy, etc. There's always SOME excuse.
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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:Took 7 years but... (Score:5, Insightful)
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]
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And yet people have not fled the state and it's still the 4th largest economy in the world.
California is just the middleman skimming the imports from Asia, profiteering on the offshoring of manufacturing to Asia. California gets this role simply through geography.
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California get a lot more than just those things "simply through geography". It's not clear what your point is. The united states as a whole became a superpower "simply through geography" (i.e. massive river network, ...
Thank you for supporting my point. California is the modern comparison to that 18th and 19th century river network. Today, profiteering off the outsourcing of manufacturing to Asia.
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So you still don't get it, or your "point" was so poorly described that it's not possible to understand what you mean. Bravo.
No, you're just missing the point from above that various historically important industries of California are in decline. Aerospace, tech, film, etc.
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Reasoning with MAGA is like talking the pope out of being Catholic.
Re:Took 7 years but... (Score:4, Insightful)
Right-wingers have been loudly cheering the inevitable economic downfall of California for years as its economy continues to grow. It must be so infuriating to them that Commiefornia just keeps getting richer.
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For now.
Re: Took 7 years but... (Score:1)
Let me guess? Mendicino and Lake Tahoe right? Or Carmel and Yosemite? See there's your problem, you went to the shittiest places. I suggest one of the many interstate interchanges or perhaps the Hollywood walk of fame. That's the "real" California
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There's only so much that California can contribute to space-launches. The Mojave and Vanderberg ports are there, but they don't have a large ocean to their southeast for potentially ditching into. And you want that if you are going to use the earth's rotation as a boost to get to orbital velocity. Otherwise you need to burn lots more fuel and aim for circumpolar-ish orbits, and that's where the Pacific Ocean comes in handy.
But stay tuned. I'm sure lots of "cool shit" is coming California's way in the space
Re: Took 7 years but... (Score:4, Informative)
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 near any spaceport at all, but people who have only been to within 20 miles of Cape Canaveral for the very first time in their lives tend to panic, thinking they're experiencing an earthquake only for somebody who has spent any amount of time there to say "nah, that's just a liftoff, probably falcon 9". Having said that, falcon 9 is a much smaller, much less powerful rocket than starship. Think about what that might mean for nearby populations that are near any spaceports.
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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,
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Don't forget the Terafab in Grimes TX.
I wasn't aware that Musk was fucking yet another Grimes.
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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.
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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.
That's the facility that will be attached to the existing Starlink dish factory in Bastrop. That one will be optimized for satellite solar panel arrays. The big solar panel factory, 100GW.proposed, is in a different county. That is a nutty number. It very much would be the single largest plant int he world. Currently in permitting so will have to wait a year or two to see if dirt actually moves.
Yes, the original original poster was incorrect on the PCB factory. That Starlink dish factory is the larges
Louisiana has more foliage ... (Score:2)
I don't know if you've ever been near any spaceport at all, but people who have only been to within 20 miles of Cape Canaveral for the very first time in their lives tend to panic, thinking they're experiencing an earthquake only for somebody who has spent any amount of time there to say "nah, that's just a liftoff, probably falcon 9".
Louisiana has more foliage than Texas, to absorb the shock wave and sound.
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“What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”
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Re: Took 7 years but... (Score:1)
I don't think he's entirely wrong (Score:1, Interesting)
If he says he's going to bring a spaceport then everyone will welcome him but if he came bearing data centers they would tell him to go fuck himself.
You can't do it in Texas because they have simply overrun their electricity capacity and they are in danger of shutting down hospitals. Als
Re: Took 7 years but... (Score:2)
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This is great for polar launches in particular (Score:5, 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.
Re:This is great for polar launches in particular (Score:4, Informative)
You had me intrigued, so I did some checking. It's much cheaper fuel-wise to launch into a circumpolar orbit than to launch equatorially and change orbital planes, either at the earth or the moon. So, launching circumpolar wins there.
However, it's much cheaper still to launch equatorially, with the earth's rotation as a boost, and then adjust the arrival plane at the moon during trans-lunar injection. You can even do it during the TLI burn that pushes you out of earth orbit.
So, no need for an earth-circumpolar orbit if your destination is the moon in a circumpolar orbit.
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Keeping the first stage booster landing over water is a good idea. Of course, any problems and that rocket could be landing unscheduled on an offshore oil rig. Of which there are thousands. That would be sub-optimal to say the least.
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.
Re: Nice choice Elmo (Score:2)
The tough reality about puppet presidents is that their heads are full of stuffing.
"built and designed to be fully reusable" (Score:2, Funny)
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Just like in Texas (Score:5, Informative)
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?
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Re: Just like in Texas (Score:1)
We can tell you're a racist because you believe in a white race. As such your defense of Leon only makes you and him both look MORE racist.
FUCK RACISM (Score:2)
WHITE IS NOT A RACE
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Elon Musk literally wore a necklace honoring the Jewish victims of an attack for over a year and people still called him a Nazi.
That's what we usually call people who make angry faces and Nazi salutes at the same time to their audience of white supremacists. You're just mad because we're perceptive enough to see through the same bullshit that fooled you.
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Re: Just like in Texas (Score:2)
If they are trying to delude dumb shits? Ask a hard one.
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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.
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What is certified and what happens in practice are two very different things.
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While they're making it sound philanthropic, they're going to have to fill on a lot of werlands to build Starbase.2. They're required by federal law to either build and maintain an equal amount of new wetlands or purchase federal wetlands offset credits for an absurd amount of money.
Let me guess (Score:3)
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)
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California won’t gargle his sack.
Re: Corruption (Score:2)
How much is the state paying them in (Score:2)
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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.
Mudjacking? (Score:2)
Exactly how's he gonig to build this spaceport? Will he build an artificial cliff 20m or so high, so that as sea levels rise, it's not underwater? And what's he going to do to protect against hurricanes, which WILL hit it?
For those that don't know (most of you), KSC was built on an island where hurricanes *don't* usually hit - they go north or south of it, which is why it sticks out the way it does.
cadence (Score:2)
Luzy-anna (Score:2)
Down here in Loozyanna there's quite a lot of ship building work. 84 shipyards, 20 some defense and aerospace companies. I imagine it will be relatively easy to hire the blue collar workers needed for a major space port. There are some industries that pay well when there's demand: welding, fabrication, machine shop work, other trades. There are independent machine shops that would make sense to use a job shops for building and maintaining a large space port.
Buildings will need to be sea and hurricane resist
Read The Fine Print. (Score:1)