SpaceX expected to launch Louisiana coast spaceport project

SpaceX’s rumored expansion into Louisiana is moving closer to reality. 

Louisiana state leaders are expected to announce that the Elon Musk-led company is planning a multibillion-dollar spaceport for Starship rockets on 18 miles of coastline about 45 miles southwest of Lafayette.

Gov. Jeff Landry’s office has invited hundreds of elected officials and business leaders for the announcement at 11 a.m. Tuesday in Abbeville, according to the Acadiana Advocate.

The emailed invite reviewed by the paper said Landry and Louisiana Economic Development Secretary Susan Bourgeois “cordially invite you to join them in announcing a defining moment for Louisiana’s future.”

READ MORE: Is Musk’s SpaceX angling for its own Louisiana Purchase? What we know.

One of Musk’s private jets spent a few hours in Lafayette on Aug. 13 in what some see as more evidence of an impending deal. 

State officials haven’t commented, but the announcement comes after months of talk of a space company looking to use the 130,000-acre swath of marshland and moves by the Louisiana Legislature to cut taxes and limit legal liability for aerospace outfits. Those measures mirror laws the Texas Legislature enacted when enticing SpaceX to South Texas.

SpaceX’s actual footprint in the area known as Pecan Island likely will be much smaller, according to one of the new laws that limits liability for a space company “that owns and occupies a minimum of twenty thousand contiguous acres.”

The giant swath of coastland was owned for decades by Exxon Mobil, but it was transferred to state control as part of a settlement of dozens of lawsuits over pollution and coastal land loss, according to the Advocate. 

It reported that a federal judge in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana signed an order dismissing a suit by Vermilion Parish against Exxon, signaling the settlement was finalized.

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Neither the price nor terms under which SpaceX would take control of the land have been disclosed. It could be a sale, long-term lease or another type of deal. 

Some first thought the Louisiana site would be only a ground testing and manufacturing complex, but recent reporting indicates it’s expected to also include a launch site. That’s in line with the company’s plans that call for “securing additional land and developing high-rate launch sites and supporting infrastructure across multiple locations.”

SpaceX already has two Starship launch towers at its Starbase location in South Texas, and it’s building another three in Florida as it ramps up toward its goal of multiple launches per day.  

The stainless steel rockets are central to Musk and SpaceX’s plans for 100,000 Starlink satellites and, separately, a network of 1 million orbital data center satellites.

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According to Kim Burke, an analyst at research firm Quilty Space, the launch corridors from Pecan Island aren’t optimal for putting Starlink satellites into orbit, but the location could work for the orbital data centers.

“SpaceX may not need it to be a perfect launch site,” she wrote. “It may just need a site that can be permitted, built, and operated at high cadence. And that area has pipeline gas, barge access, political support, thousands of acres with very few people nearby, and a huge expanse of Gulf to the south.”

The Louisiana spaceport has emerged as both SpaceX and the federal government push to expand the nation’s space launch capabilities. 

President Donald Trump said last week he wants more than 1,000 space launches and reentries from the U.S. each year by 2030. The goal was issued in a new space transportation policy issued Thursday. Part of that includes directives to develop new launch sites and expand existing ones. 

It also directed federal agencies, including environmental and aviation regulators, to streamline approval processes.

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The streamlining includes an FAA proposal to waive requirements under 13 federal environmental and historic-preservation laws when issuing launch or site licenses. The proposed rule change would allow the agency to bypass federal environmental laws, including the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, coastal-zone reviews, historic preservation and marine mammal protections.

The changes could make it easier for SpaceX to develop the Pecan Island area, which is one of the country’s main wintering grounds for waterfowl.  

“If it holds up, it removes the regulatory friction for developing protected marsh and migratory bird habitats,” Burke said. “Look at Boca Chica’s years of environmental reviews, agency consultations, and incremental approvals. Pecan Island could face a much shorter gauntlet.”

According to Burke, the huge amount of land would give SpaceX and the Louisiana Legislature some options.

“They can develop one portion, preserve another, and argue that the size of the property allows both to coexist,” she wrote. “That said, there is already pushback in the area, so I would still expect environmental lawsuits to delay the timeline.”

One group called “Stop SpaceX” has been organizing to protest the development.

Starships are currently built at Starbase in South Texas, and SpaceX is developing another manufacturing site for the giant rockets in Florida. 

The craft’s Raptor engines are manufactured in Hawthorne, Calif., and assembled and tested at McGregor outside Waco.