Musk’s SpaceX to build $100bn launch facility in Louisiana

The project will be the firm's biggest facility yet and aims to send rockets to space in 2029. Musk's SpaceX to build $100bn launch facility in Louisiana. Image source, AFP via Getty Images Image caption, SpaceX already has facilities in Texas and Florida By Osmond Chia Business reporter Published 26 August 2026, 01:39 BST Updated 6 minutes ago Multi-billionaire Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX announced that it will build its largest launch site yet in the southern US state of Louisiana.

Construction of the $100bn (£73bn) project – named Starbase, Louisiana – is due to start next year, with the 125,000-acre (50,585-hectare) site expanding on the company's operations beyond its current Texas headquarters and locations in Florida. It will be used to "support thousands of Starship flights a year with missions launching to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond," SpaceX said on Tuesday. In June, SpaceX shares started trading on New York's technology-focused Nasdaq in the world's biggest ever stock market debut.

SpaceX said it aims to launch its first Starship flight from the new Louisiana base in 2029. The facility will add more than 3,000 jobs to the region, the company said. The Louisiana Economic Development agency said the average wage of workers at the base – the largest of its kind in the world – would be 192% more than the region's current average salary.

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Elon Musk's SpaceX announced plans Tuesday to build a $100 billion facility in the southern U.S. State of Louisiana to launch its anticipated Starship megarockets, currently being developed at the company's Texas Starbase.

It's sold as a catchall solution for many of the industry's limiting factors, including land scarcity and environmental concerns and power shortages. One of the movement's most vocal proponents is Elon Musk, whose firm SpaceX recently filed an application with the FCC to launch a data center with up to a million satellites into orbit.

SpaceX announces plans for $100 billion 'spaceport' in Louisiana. August 25, 2026 SpaceX announces plans for $100 billion 'spaceport' in Louisiana edited by Andrew Zinin Andrew Zinin Chief Editor Meet our editorial team Behind our editorial process Editors' notes This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies.

Dubbed Starmind, SpaceX's orbital data center project looks to be the company's most ambitious yet. Eventually, Starmind will likely depend on SpaceX's Terafab, a $119 billion joint chip manufacturing plant with Musk's Tesla.

Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: fact-checked reputable news agency proofread The GIST Add as preferred source Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Elon Musk's SpaceX announced plans Tuesday to build a $100 billion facility in the southern U.S. "A spaceport on the Louisiana Gulf Coast enabling a multiplanetary future," declared the SpaceX website.

In the meantime, however, SpaceX will lean on NVIDIA to meet its expedient timeline. During the earnings call, Musk said that the Starmind AI1 satellite "is not some sort of far future distant thing," claiming that SpaceX will begin launching in 2027 — an optimistic timeline, even for the notoriously optimistic Musk.

The new facility will be built in Vermilion Parish, about 115 miles (185 km) west of New Orleans. "We're committed to investing at least $100 billion and creating more than 3,000 new jobs at Starbase, Louisiana," the company said, with construction to begin next year.

Despite the executive's confidence, critics remain skeptical.

SpaceX says the buildout will go beyond launch pads and include all the infrastructure necessary to support "thousands of Starship flights per year," with the first expected in 2029. Starship is the company's megarocket, still under development, which it plans to use for missions to the moon and Mars.

It will also create more than 8,100 new jobs indirectly, the agency estimated.