Why a third site
A Coastline Empty Enough for a Launch an Hour
The binding constraint on high cadence is not pads or engines — it is neighbors. Louisiana removes them.
Announced on 25 August 2026, Starbase Louisiana is a $100 billion spaceport on about 125,000 acres of former Exxon Mobil land at Pecan Island, in Vermilion Parish on the Gulf Coast west of New Orleans. SpaceX calls it a high-cadence site and describes it as potentially the largest spaceport on Earth. Pecan Island has around 300 residents, which is the point: thin population allows very frequent launches, the same condition Boca Chica had before SpaceX arrived, with a strong local energy-industry precedent on top.
It ends a search SpaceX says ran about seven years for a site that could support a high volume of launches. Construction is planned from 2027, with a first launch as early as 2029. Projected
What is planned
A Self-Sustaining Launch City
Not just pads — propellant, power, a port, an airport and housing, so the site depends on nothing outside it.
| Element | Detail | Rated |
|---|---|---|
| Launch complexes | Five complexes of two pads each — 10 pads. Musk’s stated ambition is more than a dozen towers over time | Projected |
| Propellant production | On-site fuel-production facility next to Gulf Coast natural gas — a stated reason for the location | Projected |
| Power generation | Dedicated power plant, so the site is not reliant on the grid | Projected |
| Deep-water port | Shipping port for vehicles and cargo | Projected |
| Airport & housing | Employee housing for families and an airport, to make the base self-sustaining | Projected |
| Coastal restoration | SpaceX is working with Louisiana’s Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority on hydrology, habitat and shoreline work | Projected |
The project is described as the largest capital investment in Louisiana history, expected to create more than 3,000 jobs, with Musk citing up to 10,000 over time.
The cadence case
Where 30 Flights a Day Has to Physically Happen
The site’s southward geography also serves the orbital-compute constellation.
Musk’s stated goal is more than 30 Starship flights a day from Louisiana — the concrete expression of the fleet cadence the rest of the program only projects. The location allows launches southward toward polar orbits, which is where SpaceX wants to place its Starmind orbital data-center satellites. So Louisiana is both the cadence engine and the constellation ramp: 10 pads, each also a catch tower, feeding a satellite program that needs launch capacity above anything today’s sites can supply. Recovery capacity scales with the pad count, which is covered on Recovery & Landing.
Replacing the oil rigs
The Offshore Platform Idea, Finally Built on Land
Louisiana does what Phobos and Deimos were meant to do, without a floating structure.
In 2021 Musk argued that most high-cadence spaceports would need to sit about 20 miles offshore for acceptable noise, and SpaceX bought two oil rigs, Phobos and Deimos, to convert into sea-launch and catch platforms. That effort was abandoned and the rigs sold by 2023. Starbase Louisiana fills the same role on solid ground: a coastline remote enough that the noise argument for going offshore no longer applies. The offshore story is on Recovery & Landing.
Contested
Deliberately Not Claimed
The load-bearing uncertainties, tagged with the confidence they actually earn.
Nothing is built yet. Every figure here is an announcement. Construction starts in 2027 and a first launch in 2029 is the earliest stated case, three years out, on a site that today is wetland.
30 flights a day is an ambition, not a plan. It presumes full reuse, an engine line far above today’s, and a regulatory regime that permits that rate over inhabited coast. Treat it as a stated ceiling.
Coastal-wetland permitting is a real gate. The site transforms protected coastal wetland; the restoration commitments and CPRA coordination are stated, but the environmental review is not complete.
Record
Provenance and Data Sources
- Confidence
- Projected throughout — announced August 2026, unbuilt
- Status date
- Q3 2026
- Announcement
- SpaceX Starbase Louisiana announcement, 25 August 2026; Louisiana Economic Development materials
- Site
- Pecan Island, Vermilion Parish; former Exxon Mobil land; NASASpaceFlight and press coverage
- Weakest link
- Coastal permitting and the entire construction timeline