Louisiana Excited by $100 Billion SpaceX Launch Facility, Local Starlink Discounts
The state said SpaceX’s BEAD locations were unchanged
WASHINGTON, Aug. 26, 2026 – SpaceX is planning to spend $100 billion on a new rocket launching facility in Louisiana, state officials announced Tuesday.
The new facility will cover 125,000 acres of coastal land in Vermilion Parish that the state sold to the company for $100 million. It’s expected to include 10 launch pads to aid the company's efforts to increase its launch cadence.
The company already launches more rockets annually than the rest of the world combined, but it’s hoping its Starship rocket will be completely reusable, allowing for much more frequent launches.
Construction on Starbase Louisiana, as the company is calling it, is set to start in 2027, with the first Starship launch from the site planned for 2029.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on X (which he owns) last week the company was targeting the first reflight of a Starship unit by the end of 2026 or early 2027, an acknowledgement the difficult problem might not be solved this year, as had been planned.
The company’s current Falcon 9 rockets are partially reusable, and its plans for Starship would require shielding gear from much higher temperatures as it fell from higher above the Earth.
Louisiana officials were excited about the launch facility plans.
“For generations industries came to Louisiana not to build lasting prosperity, but to extract wealth,” Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, said at an announcement event Tuesday. “What Elon Musk and his team are offering Louisiana is something different.”
The facility is expected to create 3,000 jobs, the Louisiana economic development office said in a release Tuesday. The state offered SpaceX “a competitive incentives package” on the condition of its capital investment and job creation, the state said.
Rather than taxes, SpaceX will pay $25 million annually to Vermilion Parish under the deal. The Advocate, a Louisiana newspaper, reported that local environmental groups were wary about the project.
Starlink and BEAD
SpaceX will also offer new and existing Starlink broadband customers in the parish a 50 percent monthly discount, Louisiana’s broadband office said Wednesday.
It will also waive new hardware costs for new customers, the agency said.
In addition to Starship being reusable, it’s also huge, and the larger size is necessary for SpaceX to start deploying bigger, upgraded broadband satellites that will support higher speeds.
SpaceX was one of the biggest broadband grant winners in the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program. After changing some rules to foster satellite participation, the Trump administration asked states to revise down their satellite awards in light of new federal data showing expanded terrestrial networks and misclassified buildings.
But Louisiana had already signed its contract with SpaceX in June, meaning SpaceX would have to agree to any changes.
It apparently did not. The broadband office’s release touted the deal and the 10,635 locations that SpaceX was originally set to serve.
SpaceX currently has more than 9,000 Starlink satellites in orbit, 27 more were launched just Wednesday morning. It’s seeking approval to launch 15,000 satellites for a direct-to-device service and another 100,000 for next-gen Starlink service.
