Multi-billionaire Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX has announced plans to build its largest launch site yet in the southern US state of Louisiana.
Construction of the $100 billion (£73 billion) project, named Starbase, Louisiana, is scheduled to begin next year. The 125,000-acre (50,585-hectare) site will expand the company’s operations beyond its current headquarters in Texas and facilities in Florida, reports BBC.
The site 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.
SpaceX shares began trading on New York’s technology-focused Nasdaq in June in the world’s biggest-ever stock market debut.
The company said it aims to launch the first Starship flight from the new Louisiana base in 2029.
The facility will create more than 3,000 jobs in the region, SpaceX said.
The Louisiana Economic Development agency said workers at the base- which it described as the largest facility of its kind in the world – would earn an average wage 192 per cent higher than the region’s current average salary.
The agency estimated that the project would also create more than 8,100 indirect jobs.
“The historic project will establish Louisiana as a global hub for next-generation aerospace, with the capacity and infrastructure needed to dramatically increase launch frequency and expand access to space,” it added.
The Louisiana facility will share its name with another SpaceX site at the southern tip of Texas.
In 2025, residents in an area of Cameron County, where SpaceX conducts testing and development operations, approved incorporating the area as a city called Starbase.
