Starbase Louisiana Is Built for Thousands of Starship Flights

SpaceX and Louisiana Economic Development announced Starbase, Louisiana on Aug. 25, 2026, for coastal Vermilion Parish. SpaceX's film places the site in the coastal marshes just south of Pecan Island. The Times-Picayune reports the spaceport on roughly 40,000 acres of coastline about 10 miles south of Pecan Island, west of Freshwater Bayou Canal, inside a broader ~125,000-acre former Exxon tract. Gov. Jeff Landry and SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell both used 125,000 acres on stage. LED's release and SpaceX's Starbase, LA page do not state acreage.

Official LED and SpaceX numbers: at least $100 billion. Construction expected to begin in 2027. First launch targeted as soon as 2029. The site is designed to support thousands of Starship flights a year. That is design capacity, not a licensed cadence and not a booked manifest.

Why this marsh

In SpaceX's Aug. 25 announcement film, a company speaker said SpaceX started looking for a high-rate launch site in earnest probably 7 years ago, and that such a site needs coast, low nearby population, ample gas, and the right trajectories. Walking the corridor, a speaker said the road has served offshore oil and gas since the 1950s and used to be what they call Freshwater City, calling the old dock the bones of what is there. The Times-Picayune locates the spaceport just west of Freshwater Bayou Canal. That hunt timeline is the film, not the LED release.

What they say they will build

Shotwell said SpaceX is planning a self-sustaining spaceport with propellant production, power generation, deep-water shipping, vehicle processing, and probably an airport. SpaceX's site lists those same items and states an airport with no probably. LED's release lists propellant production, power generation, vehicle processing, and employee housing, and at full buildout five launch complexes, each with two pads and a propellant farm. That is 10 pads. It does not mention an airport or deep-water shipping.

Shotwell said Texas currently has one active Starship pad and a second in active build. Independent reporting matches Pad 2 / OLP-2 as the flying pad (Flight 13, July 24, 2026) and Pad 1 / OLP-1 in retrofit. She said Florida has three different stages of pads in construction. That matches SpaceX's Dec. 1, 2025 statement of three Florida Starship pads: LC-39A at Kennedy plus two at SLC-37.

The mission stack is already priced

Shotwell said that in a few years Starship will enable us to return Americans to the surface of the moon along with NASA and build a permanent moon base, launch next-generation Starlink, and move supercompute to space, and that those tasks will require thousands of launches. NASA already has SpaceX on HLS lunar-landing work and, separately, announced a Moon Base program on March 24, 2026. Abbeville did not award a new NASA contract. LED says Starship will support national priorities like building a base on the Moon and missions for orbital data centers and expanding internet. Thousands of launches is SpaceX's planning number. LED uses the same thousands-annually capacity language.

Jobs: 3,000 official, 10,000 speech

LED's official figure is 3,000 direct new jobs over the next 10 years at an average $92,600, plus more than 8,100 indirect jobs (more than 11,100 opportunities in Acadiana). SpaceX's site says more than 3,000 new jobs. The PILOT is tied to the 3,000.

On stage, Shotwell said SpaceX expects at least 3,000 permanent jobs, then Elon said 10, then it's probably closer to 10 than three and likely far more. In the company film, Musk said SpaceX would bring probably more than 10,000 exciting jobs. Those are speech figures.

Shotwell separately said 60 to 80 percent of new hires at Texas sites are local residents. A SpaceX film speaker said 70 percent of the Starbase, Texas workforce is local to the Rio Grande Valley. Those are Texas-experience claims, not an LED Louisiana hire quota.

The coast and the Starlink offer

Shotwell said Vermilion Parish shoreline is eroding between 3 and 23 feet per year. SpaceX's site says between 3.3 and 23 feet per year and that the company is partnering with state and federal agencies to expand Louisiana's Coastal Master Plan and CWPPRA projects, including Gulf shoreline breakwaters, plus thousands of acres of marsh creation. Shotwell said first visible work is access so equipment can restore wetland and stop shoreline erosion, in partnership with the state and Vermilion Parish, and that SpaceX will keep very large portions of this 125,000 acres untouched. SpaceX's site: SpaceX is not developing the full footprint of the land. Treat the erosion range as SpaceX's cited figure, not a USGS or CPRA page.

On stage Shotwell said SpaceX would make Starlink available at far more affordable pricing even than you see online. That is speech, not the offer. Official Starlink: a Vermilion Parish Area Discount of 50 percent off Residential monthly service for addresses in the eligible zone, applied automatically for new and existing Residential customers. No upfront hardware cost for new Residential signups only. Not Roam. Not statewide. Not $0 hardware for existing customers.

This Exclusive is written from the long cut, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOCtcov28_w, Shotwell's Abbeville speech plus SpaceX's announcement film. The shorter 10-minute film is the same package.