Elon Musk’s SpaceX is planning a $100 billion rocket launch facility along the Louisiana coast, an unprecedented project that promises to forever transform a quiet strip of Vermilion Parish marshland into one of the busiest aerospace hubs on Earth.
As part of an effort to launch thousands of satellites into orbit and a broader mission to someday reach Mars, SpaceX officials said Tuesday they will build five launch pads, a mission-control center, office buildings, power plants, a propellant factory and employee housing on a tract of coastal land abutted by wildlife refuges some 50 miles south of Lafayette.
The facility, which will employ thousands of workers, will be larger than SpaceX’s three other launch sites, including its Starbase headquarters near Brownsville, Texas. And Musk plans to move fast, with construction starting in 2027 and the first rocket taking off in three years.
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Musk, the world’s richest man, made the announcement in a pre-recorded video at an invitation-only gathering hosted by Gov. Jeff Landry. More than 450 elected officials, business leaders, lawyers and lobbyists crowded into a reception hall on Magdalen Square in Abbeville, the Vermilion Parish seat, for the Tuesday event.
In the video, Musk is shown stepping out of a helicopter at the coastal site, where he is greeted by Landry and several SpaceX officials.
“This is going to be fantastic for Louisiana,” Musk said in the video, which he recorded during a secret visit to the area earlier this month. The project, to be called Starbase Louisiana, will be key to launching “serious tonnage” into orbit, he said, making human space travel routine.
“I think it is going to be totally exciting for Louisiana,” he said.
Landry, who has made attracting major industrial investments a central tenet of his first term, called the project “a pivotal moment for Louisiana” that charts a new path for the state.
“For generations, industry came to Louisiana not to build lasting prosperity but to extract wealth,” Landry said. “Too often, Louisiana was left with scars while others enjoyed the profits.”
“What Elon Musk and his team is offering Louisiana is different,” he added. “They are offering us a permanent future and lasting prosperity”.
‘We want to do it here’
The deal to bring SpaceX to Louisiana, its details largely shielded until now by nondisclosure agreements, has been in the works for months. It was helped along by changes to Louisiana regulatory rules that make it harder for local officials to scuttle projects or seek compensation for damages.
Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Susan Bourgeois said Tuesday that conversations between the state and the company began in February and that plans came together in record time given the scope and size of the project.
It comes as President Donald Trump, a key ally of Musk, has taken steps at the federal level to accelerate projects like this one by directing his administration to waive more than a dozen environmental regulations and streamline permitting for commercial rocket launch facilities, among other things.
But even with political support, SpaceX’s plan nevertheless represents a massive and ambitious undertaking that will cost billions and take decades to be completed.
The spaceport will be located on roughly 40,000 acres of coastline crisscrossed by natural-gas pipelines just to the west of Freshwater Bayou Canal, which links the Gulf to the Intracoastal Waterway.
It is about 10 miles south of Pecan Island, a recreational hunting community that has been decimated by hurricanes in recent decades. Today, it has just a few dozen households.
SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell, who attended Tuesday’s event and spoke on stage, said the facility is key to Musk’s ambitious plans to put up to 100,000 of its Starlink communications satellites into low-earth orbit by 2030.
SpaceX’s reusable Starship rockets, the most powerful ever made, are capable of carrying dozens of satellites with each launch. Musk also recently said he plans to eventually use his rockets to launch up to a million orbital data centers to power artificial intelligence.
To achieve those goals, Shotwell said, the company needs to build more launch facilities — “and we want to do it here.”
Environmental issues
The land is part of a broader 125,000-acre site, sandwiched between two wildlife refuges, that was owned for more than 70 years by ExxonMobil. Earlier this month, Exxon donated the property to the state as part of a settlement of dozens of coastal lawsuits. The state then sold the land to SpaceX for $100 million, or about $800 an acre.
State officials said the money will go to the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority for coastal restoration projects, though specific details of how it will be spent were not immediately available.
The land deal was just one piece of an incentive package with Louisiana Economic Development that includes tax breaks and other agreements. As part the deal, SpaceX has agreed to hire at least 3,000 workers and create an additional 8,000 or so construction and spinoff jobs.
It isn’t clear what the project will mean for nearby residents, businesses and hunting camps, or the coastal land itself.
Shotwell said the company will fund “thousands of acres” of marsh creation, build up beaches and “is committed to keeping large part of these 125,000 acres untouched.”
“We will help fund protection, restoration and stewardship while we build,” she said. “We don’t want this land just to survive. We want it to thrive while becoming a launch pad to humanity’s greatest venture.”
Waterfowl and migratory birds, including several endangered species, make coastal Vermilion Parish their home. And environmental groups have already started organizing to oppose the plans, though recent changes to state law preclude local governments and individuals from suing to try to stop commercial aerospace projects.
Rebecca Triche, the executive director of the Louisiana Wildlife Federation, said that her group was “understandably wary” of the SpaceX project given what she said was the state’s spotty track record on environmental issues.
“Is the state capable of permitting and monitoring a project of this size?” she asked. “How is the state preparing to protect our resources in this phase?”
Incentives
Among the incentives the company has received are a sales tax exemption from the state, passed by the legislature earlier this year, worth untold billions over the life of the project, and a 25-year PILOT, or Payment in Lieu of Taxation, in return for creating 3,000 jobs that pay $93,000 a year, or nearly two-times more than average Vermilion Parish wages.
Under the terms of the deal, SpaceX will pay $25 million a year for 25 years to Vermilion Parish, increasing by 2% a year for inflation, plus an extra $20 million in 2026.
Additionally, the company will donate $25 million to the Community Foundation of Acadiana to help cover the cost of regional planning for the facility. The thousands of workers will almost certainly need more infrastructure than the sole two-lane highway leading south from Abbeville to the site.
SpaceX officials said they will begin regular meeting with the community in the near future to hear their concerns, answer questions and give updates on their timeline.
The Vermilion Parish site, though marshy and vulnerable to the ravages of climate change and a receding coast, is attractive to the company for a launch facility for several reasons.
It is sparsely populated with a natural acoustic buffer. It is near the Gulf and Intracoastal Waterway, which can accommodate barges carrying heavy Starship rockets and components. And the site’s southward-facing location on the Gulf coast is an ideal spot from which to launch into polar orbit — an orbital path that circles the planet from north to south.
It also has easy access to abundant natural gas. SpaceX plans to have propellant farms on site at its Louisiana facility. In Texas, fuel has to be brought in on barges.
In his announcement, Musk said that the company could eventually hire 10,000 workers at its Louisiana facility. In terms of money spent and expected launch capacity, Musk, who has a history of bold assertions, said it will be the world’s largest launch site.
Staff writer Alex Lubben contributed to this report.
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include additional comments from Gov. Jeff Landry, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell and Rebecca Triche of the Louisiana Wildlife Federation.