SpaceX to build $100B rocket launch facility in Louisiana

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry on Tuesday announced the state’s new $100 billion partnership with SpaceX to build a massive new rocket launch site in the state.

A video unveiled plans for a spaceport to be built in Vermilion Parish in southern Louisiana, calling the area one of the few places on Earth where SpaceX could launch  thousands of rockets a year. Elon Musk appeared in the video and said the spaceport would bring up to 10,000 jobs to Louisiana, adding that the spaceport would be open to the public.

Landry took the stage after the video and said SpaceX would offer Louisiana a permanent future. SpaceX would commit $100 billion of investment in Vermilion Parish, Landry revealed, calling it a transformational moment in the state’s history. The spaceport would bring better jobs, community momentum, and greater opportunities for the people of Louisiana, he said. In 1803, Louisiana gave America a continent, and today, Louisiana and SpaceX would give America the stars, he concluded.

Gwynne Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, said Starbase Louisiana would make the potential of multiplanetary living possible. The team would commit to ensure the protection and preservation of Louisiana’s coast and wildlife throughout the site’s construction and future, she said. The work would include thousands of acres of marsh restoration, strengthening the vanishing wetlands and coastal storm barrier the state had been losing, all funded by SpaceX. The company would also hold a series of town hall meetings going forward to find out what the citizens of the town were looking for, she added.