SpaceX is set to acquire 130,000 acres of marshland in southern Louisiana

In the near future, SpaceX will have two orbital launch towers at its Starbase facility in South Texas and two more in Florida at Cape Canaveral. However, both of these locations are largely built out or congested with other launch companies.

The Louisiana location, close to the Intracoastal Waterway with deep-water access and far more available real estate than Starbase, would offer several significant advantages.

It is relatively close, by barge, to SpaceX’s massive Starfactory in South Texas near Boca Chica beach. Additionally, the southward-facing location offers potential access to polar orbits. In contrast to equatorial orbits that move from west to east, polar orbits go north to south (or vice versa) and generally pass near or over the poles. It is likely that a majority of SpaceX’s orbital data center satellites will wind up in near-polar orbits. From Louisiana, it is possible that a Starship could reach a polar orbit with only a short traverse over Mexico nearly 1,000 miles down range.

Another advantage of Louisiana is its proximity to natural gas infrastructure. For rapid launch operations, SpaceX will require extensive amounts of methane, and the Pecan Island site is located only a few dozen miles south of the “Henry Hub” distribution hub for natural gas, one of the most interconnected locations in the world. The availability of propellant would be far greater there than in Boca Chica or Florida.

A launch site in this area would raise significant environmental and logistical concerns and disrupt the local community. A similar thing has happened in South Texas over the last decade with the Starbase facility there, raising local opposition for environmental and other reasons. But from an economic standpoint, the Texas site has been good business for the state. SpaceX employs about 5,000 people directly in the Brownsville region and has transformed a sleepy border area into an aerospace powerhouse. Some analyses show the site now supports up to 24,000 indirect and direct jobs. It has also increased tourism during launches.

In terms of accommodating SpaceX, Louisiana would certainly be incentivized by the potential for similar economic activity.