SpaceX to build second $100B 'Starbase' spaceport in Louisiana

SpaceX has announced it will build a second spaceport for future launches of its Starship mega-rocket at a former Exxon property in Louisiana, ending what the company says was a seven-year search for a suitable location. The site sits along the Gulf Coast in Vermilion Parish, west of New Orleans and roughly 10 hours from SpaceX’s existing Starbase complex in South Texas. SpaceX says it is investing $100 billion, with construction starting in 2027 and a first Starship launch by 2029; Louisiana Economic Development gives a more conservative timeline, saying construction will start by the end of 2027 with “initial operations expected to come online in 2030.”

SpaceX must still prove it can fly Starship into low-Earth orbit and make the rocket reusable, like its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. It has flown 13 Starship test flights since 2023, and an upcoming 14th flight could send the upper stage to orbit for the first time — though SpaceX has yet to return both the booster and upper stage to the pad on a single flight, a basic requirement for reusability. That hasn’t stopped the company from betting almost everything on Starship: Elon Musk said this past week he’ll retire the Falcon rockets once Starship flies multiple times a week, echoing earlier Bloomberg reporting that SpaceX was already warning customers of Falcon’s end. SpaceX has spent more than $8 billion developing Starship, per SEC filings; the rocket is crucial to growing Starlink, the only currently profitable part of the business, and to a planned satellite network for AI processing.

Louisiana Economic Development says the new site is expected to create 3,000 direct jobs over 10 years, at an average annual salary of $92,600, with more than 30,000 construction jobs at the buildout’s peak. “We are very excited to be in this position to receive one of the best opportunities of a lifetime, which will bring not only a variety of jobs to our Parish but will offer opportunities to our grandchildren, allowing them to stay home for employment,” Vermilion Parish Police Jury President Chad Vallo said in a statement.

It isn’t yet clear whether SpaceX plans a company town around the Louisiana site, as it built in Texas, where the once-named Boca Chica now has its own ZIP code and a local government filled with SpaceX employees and their families. The Texas site has seen extremely high injury rates over the past decade as an active launch complex and construction zone — the most dangerous site SpaceX operates, with hundreds of injuries reported to OSHA; in May, a construction worker employed by a third-party contractor fell to his death there. SpaceX, which has faced criticism and legal battles over its treatment of Texas’s local ecosystem, says it has already engaged Louisiana wildlife and coastal-protection agencies over potential impacts on wildlife, fisheries, and shoreline erosion.

Why it matters

The bet on a second, even larger spaceport shows SpaceX doubling down on Starship — and its riskier safety record — as the rocket becomes central not just to human spaceflight ambitions but to the Starlink and AI-satellite businesses funding the rest of the company.