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SpaceX Plans to Build a $100 Billion Spaceport In Louisiana (cnbc.com) 179

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."

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SpaceX Plans to Build a $100 Billion Spaceport In Louisiana

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  • 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.

    • by ClickOnThis ( 137803 ) on Wednesday August 26, 2026 @11:50AM (#66307956) Journal

      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.

      • 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.

    • by spitzak ( 4019 )

      Circumpolar launches of starlink are done from Vandenberg. It also has a big ocean south of it.

  • 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.

  • Oh I thought they were built and designed to explode?
  • Just like in Texas (Score:5, Informative)

    by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Wednesday August 26, 2026 @06:19AM (#66307542)

    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?

    • There are a lot of legitimate criticisms here, but the wastewater thing is not one of them. SpaceX in the article points out that the water used is literally drinking water before it used for the deluge system, and they are correct there. While it is technically waste water, and they should fill all the legal requirements, the dumping just isn't a serious issue. Musk is a racist ass, and SpaceX needs to do a better job with its environmental obligations. However, the wastewater issue is not a real problem.
      • by Twinbee ( 767046 )
        On the contrary, Musk is the only one of the rich people I've known who is *anti-racist*. He and he was the one who spoke up when Malema was spewing his hate speech in SA. He generally hates how white people have been given second class status in all their countries around the world.
    • 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.

    • 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:4, Insightful)

    by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Wednesday August 26, 2026 @08:19AM (#66307612)

    The politicians have strapped on their knee pads and will offer zero taxes on everything. In a bottom tier state that desperately needs funding.

  • socalist welfare to built it there then?
    • Socialism is State control of the means of production. Can you tell me how tax incentives to attract private investment is that?
      • Actually that's Communism or Facism. They only differ in what they claim the state does with the control on the latter the people belong to the state in the former the they claim the people own the state. It's welfare for rich people transfering money from poor people through tax and the denial of services those people pay for through those taxes, And every one knows in the US is SOCALISM!!
  • 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.

  • 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.

  • SpaceX has moved to launching rockets within an hour of each other. Multiple distanced facilities make sense.
  • 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

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