Musk plans another $100 billion pie, SpaceX officially announces construction of Earth's largest launch site

Abstract:

Following the 100-billion-dollar Terafab chip factory project, Musk, the world’s richest man, has another 100-billion-dollar space launch site project on his “picture list.” On Tuesday local time,

The Louisiana government and SpaceX jointly announced that the commercial aerospace giant plans to invest US$100 billion to build a giant new launch site in the southern part of the state, covering an area of ​​approximately 125,000 acres

support "thousands of Starship flights per year"

(Source: Louisiana State Government)

According to current plans, the launch site named "Louisiana Starport" is expected to include five launch complexes,

each complex equipped with two launch pads

propellant production, power supply, deep-water shipping capabilities, aircraft processing facilities, and an airport

(Source: SpaceX official website)

The project will start construction in 2027 and aims to complete the first launch in 2029.

Musk also stated on social media that the "Louisiana Starport" will eventually have "more than a dozen launch pads", supporting

30 "Starship" launches per day

In the short term, this launch site will provide SpaceX with a third place to launch "Starship". SpaceX currently builds and launches Starships primarily in southern Texas. The company is also developing a second launch site in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The launch site in Louisiana will allow the "Starship" to fly south over the Gulf of Mexico and send the vehicle over the Earth's polar regions

It should be noted that the “starship” carrying Musk’s dream of interstellar immigration is still in the early iteration stage.

So far this year, SpaceX has only conducted two "Starship" test flights, and the technical team is currently working on the recovery problem of the "Starship" spacecraft. Musk predicted last week that attempts to use the launch tower to recover the spacecraft may take several more months, and the current timetable is to complete the reuse and launch of the spacecraft by the end of this year or early next year.

NASA, which is looking forward to the "Starship" to realize the dream of astronauts returning to the moon, is also "urging" SpaceX to increase the frequency of launches. NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said this month that he would feel more confident about testing the Starship Human Landing System next year if the Starship can keep launching once a month, or even launch every few weeks by the end of the year.

From the perspective of short-term planning, the "Starship" will also undertake a number of important tasks, including

launching larger and upgraded Starlink satellites to increase Internet service capacity

2027