STARBASE, Texas \u2014 Plumes of vapor burst from the launchpad beneath the rocket, then a flame, pale in the early morning light, visible but silent.<\/p>\n
The rocket rose steadily. A seagull screeched. People yelled: \u201cWhoa!\u201d and \u201cGo!\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, as the rocket pierced the clouds, the sound arrived, about 30 seconds after ignition \u2014 a fast, pulsing rumble, like the thrum of one car window cracked open on the highway, but much stronger, deep enough to feel in your chest and rattle windows.<\/p>\n
SpaceX’s Starship \u2014 a 40-story, two-stage behemoth, the largest and most powerful rocket ever flown \u2014 climbed over the Gulf as hundreds watched from the tip of South Padre Island last week. It was the 14th test launch for Starship, and the first time the company would attempt to get the rocket into orbit and deliver working satellites to space.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Spectators wait along the jetties for a SpaceX launch Starship Flight 14 in South Padre Island, Texas, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. STAFF PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER<\/p>\n
Sophia Germer<\/p>\n
What SpaceX learns from this launch, it will carry with it to Louisiana, where Elon Musk plans to build a $100 billion, 10-launchpad spaceport \u2014 several times larger than his Texas site. From Louisiana, he hopes to one day launch rockets at a clip comparable to the pace of departures from Louis Armstrong International Airport.<\/p>\n
And when SpaceX lands in Vermilion Parish, the spaceflight superfans will follow. Some are glad they will soon not have to travel so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to put down my gun and watch the launches from the duck blind,\u201d said Kirk Robicheaux, 58, who hunts on his family’s land on White Lake in Vermilion Parish, near Pecan Island, only a few miles from the location of the newly announced Starbase Louisiana, SpaceX\u2019s next spaceport.<\/p>\n
Robicheaux watches every launch online, but this was his first in person.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have my concern about it affecting the ecosystem and the culture,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I think it’s worth doing all that just because of what it\u2019ll do for Louisiana. We\u2019re such a poor state right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A clock counts down to SpaceX’s Starship Flight 14 launch in Starbase, Texas, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. STAFF PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER<\/p>\n
The Times-Picayune<\/p>\n
‘If it blows up, it’s cool’<\/p>\n
By the time the countdown starts, a pop-up society has formed around the rocket, with its own subcultures, rituals and monuments.<\/p>\n
The night before launch, 10 miles from the pad, several men hoisted upright a 50-foot-tall bronze statue of Prometheus, who, in Greek mythology, stole fire from the gods and gave it to the mortals. It was transported here from France by a group of right-wing sculptors<\/a> whose past work includes $300 plaster busts<\/a> of Canadian conservative provocateur Jordan Peterson.<\/p>\n The titan looms over a misshapen foam-and-fiberglass statue of the SpaceX founder\u2019s head, with an inscription that reads: \u201cElon Musk aka MemeLord,\u201d inspired by a 2019 drawing that went viral on Reddit<\/a>. Down the road, past the Border Patrol station, a group of twentysomethings was midway through a marathon livestreaming session, drinking beers on top of a raggedy RV and filming themselves on their phones.<\/p>\n Spectators watch from Boca Chica Blvd. as a 50ft Prometheus by French sculptors Atelier Missor is prepared for installation along the road that leads to SpaceX near Starbase, Texas, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. STAFF PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER<\/p>\n Sophia Germer<\/p>\n Launches draw certain types. Many of the spectators were flight enthusiasts or pilots. There were older folks who recalled the heyday of the space race. Some had come as much for Musk as for the rocket, subscribers to his worldview.<\/p>\n Because the launch site is on a public road, spaceflight fans can drive up nearly to the base of the rocket, which is about 100 feet taller than the Statue of Liberty. In its shadow, a small crowd wearing the tech-worker uniform of plain T-shirts and jeans, some in SpaceX caps, snapped selfies.<\/p>\n ElonDAO’s bust of Elon Musk, almost 9ft tall, stands next to the highway near Starbase, Texas, Monday, Sept. 28, 2026. STAFF PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER<\/p>\n Sophia Germer<\/p>\n Previous launch attempts have had mixed results. One rocket exploded as it soared over the Caribbean, dropping rocket parts on beaches and roads in Turks and Caicos and forcing commercial airliners to divert<\/a> to avoid flaming debris.<\/p>\n Another launch attempt blew up part of the launchpad, showering nearby homes with dust and shooting hunks of concrete into the neighboring wildlife refuge. Yet another, a successful test flight, carried the rocket\u2019s first payload into space: a toy banana<\/a>.\u00a0SpaceX ran the banana through the federal cargo-approval process as a dry run for the satellites it would launch later.<\/p>\n Kick streamers stand on an RV near Starship launch pad in Starbase, Texas, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026. STAFF PHOTO BY SOPHIA GERMER<\/p>\n Sophia Germer<\/p>\n To Musk, each of these attempts was, in its own way, a win. The goal of testing a rocket is to collect data to fine-tune its functioning. Failures are expected. SpaceX engineers have a tongue-in-cheek acronym for that expected outcome: RUD, or rapid unscheduled disassembly.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of land with nobody around, and so if it blows up, it\u2019s cool,\u201d Musk said at a press conference in 2018.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a line that residents nearby have not forgotten.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n