SpaceX has just officially announced Starbase, Louisiana, a new $100+ billion spaceport in South Louisiana near Pecan Island.

Construction starts in 2027, with the first Starship launch from the new site planned for 2029.

Starbase, Louisiana will be built to support thousands of Starship flights a year. This self-sustaining spaceport will have propellant production, power generation, deep-water shipping capabilities, vehicle processing facilities, and an airport.

SpaceX is committed to investing at least $100 billion and creating more than 3,000 new jobs at Starbase, Louisana hiring heavily from nearby communities and utilizing Louisiana workers’ extensive experience of building complex infrastructure in their unique environment.

In Vermilion Parish, the shoreline is eroding between 3.3 and 23 feet per year. SpaceX is partnering with state and federal agencies to expand Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plan and Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act projects, including Gulf shoreline protection breakwaters designed to reduce wave energy and slow loss along the Gulf edge.

“on LA’s delta, will the location permit launches due or east-northeast? South-eastern trajectories if there is a launch/booster problem would be open until the missile is over FL west coast. Now, from south TX, there is only a very narrow “window” between FL tip, Cuba, and several of the independent islands.”

No you cannot launch due east your booster IIP that’s immediate impact point crosses over New Orleans metro area and all of the Redneck Riviera too.

This site is for polar orbits , sun synchronise SSO or ISS 55 degree inclinations all of those are near due south or inclined over the Gulf.

SSO is important for surveillance orbits and geointel plus climate monitoring as the bird crossas the same spots again and again at the exact same solar hour angle.

Polar orbits are where you put AI data centers they have very short solar eclipse periods so you don’t need huge battery banks to ride out hours of darkness polar orbits have near continuous sunlight except for the orbits behind earth’s shadow and you cross in and out every 45 min in those like clock work. All the others are edge on full orbit in sunlight.

About IIP this is the point on earth where if you lost power or your rocket blew up the debris with land after it’s ballistic path and reentry it’s actually an eclipse area. At first it is close to your launch pad and as your stack gains altitude and more importantly it a horizontal vector speed this point starts to move rapidly along the surface. This IIP must not cross populated land BEFORE you cross the Karman line which makes you legally in space. From that point forward you can cross any city on earth and we do regularly. Superheavy never gets close to orbital velocity so its always below the legal Karman space line and it’s IIP must NEVER intersect populated land. Starship on the other hand once it crosses 100km it’s IIP is no longer relevant and even if it crosses over land it does so at 7+km per second so the statistical probability of it coming down over any given spot is near zero so yes you can launch due east out of south Texas and Starship can and will cross Florida legally and safely it’s the only way to get to the moon from any current or future Starship pad unless they also do a KSC tower then you can also go due east from there as well. You could never use this Pecan Island site for a due east launch over NOLA it will not be allowed for obvious reasons regardless of how many successful launches they have it only takes one to dump 4000 tonnes of burning debris over the most populated part of LA nope not happening in fact the protests would be biblical.

The best place for a spot which can do both polar , SSO, and due east is Matagorda Island Texas it’s been studied and there was a NASA facility there at one point for the Space Shuttle KSC won the political aspect and there you go. From a orbital mechanics and booster recovery Matagorda Island is ideal if you want to catch boosters down range in the Gulf they come back well before Florida waters are reached.

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