Louisiana scored a major coup in the economic development wars. Elon Musk announced SpaceX will build a spaceport in Vermillion Parish. Why Vermillion Parish? Two words: Polar orbit.
Rockets can't achieve polar orbit from Florida or Texas and it's highly unlikely Musk would use California for such a project. The Gulf of Mexico is perfect for such flights. The Morning Advocate provided more information today
Elon Musk's SpaceX is planning a $100 billion rocket launch facility along the Louisiana coast, an unprecedented project that promises to forever transform a quiet strip of Vermilion Parish marshland into one of the busiest aerospace hubs on Earth. As part of an effort to launch thousands of satellites into orbit and a broader mission to someday reach Mars, SpaceX officials said Tuesday they will build five launch pads, a mission-control center, office buildings, power plants, a propellant factory and employee housing on a tract of coastal land abutted by wildlife refuges some 50 miles south of Lafayette. The facility, which will employ thousands of workers, will be larger than SpaceX's three other launch sites, including its Starbase headquarters near Brownsville, Texas. And Musk plans to move fast, with construction starting in 2027 and the first rocket taking off in three years.... The spaceport will be located on roughly 40,000 acres of coastline crisscrossed by natural-gas pipelines just to the west of Freshwater Bayou Canal, which links the Gulf to the Intracoastal Waterway. .... The land is part of a broader 125,000-acre site, sandwiched between two wildlife refuges, that was owned for more than 70 years by ExxonMobil. Earlier this month, Exxon donated the property to the state as part of a settlement of dozens of coastal lawsuits. The state then sold the land to SpaceX for $100 million, or about $800 an acre. State officials said the money will go to the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority for coastal restoration projects, though specific details of how it will be spent were not immediately available. The land deal was just one piece of an incentive package with Louisiana Economic Development that includes tax breaks and other agreements. As part the deal, SpaceX has agreed to hire at least 3,000 workers and create an additional 8,000 or so construction and spinoff jobs.... the site’s southward-facing location on the Gulf coast is an ideal spot from which to launch into polar orbit — an orbital path that circles the planet from north to south. It also has easy access to abundant natural gas. SpaceX plans to have propellant farms on site at its Louisiana facility. In Texas, fuel has to be brought in on barges.... Rest of article.
Hopefully this project means there will be some spillover for the Gulf Coast. Nice job, Louisiana, nice job.
28 comments:
I wonder if Mississippi tried to land this?
This site needed a giant track of land near the ocean with no residents within the very large buffer zone and this area had the roads and other infrastructure from supporting offshore oil & gas operations. I'm not sure there is another site in the country that would have fit all the criteria for this. It's also about half way between Houston & Stennis Space Center. Good for Louisiana and the whole region, though.
At least half a dozen bodyguards evenly spaced looked outwards. I wonder what kind of weapons they carry in those sachets?
F@cking jealous of those coonass motherf@ckers. Landry hit the f@cking lottery.
Hopefully Elon will make good on the coastal erosion and marsh restoration that Exxon promised to do with this area. This may be a good thing, however there are a lot of people that are upset with it going there. That area is a large area for migrating wintering waterfowl. Also, this past legislative session, there were laws passed exempting aerospace entity's from public records laws(ACT 101/HB1071), any aerospace entity occupying over 20,000 acres(hhhmmmm) can't be sued for various reasons(ACT 874/HB1098), and an special early dismissal motion for lawsuits against an aerospace entity tied to a public issue(Act343/HB1250).
That is shady and Landy is getting skull drug on the socials over this. The people of Vermillion Parish are some of the last true Cajuns we have. None of them want this. There has to be a deal cut with Exxon as they were supposed to do a lot with coastal erosion and marsh enhancements, that they never did. Lots of back door deals, politics, and secrecy. The fact these laws were passed in the legislative session means they all knew what was going on beforehand. Who all got paid under the table is the question. If it is a good or bad thing, is to be determined
With Stennis Space Center being next door in Hancock county, I would expect some spillover. Lots of it. This is good for Louisiana and us.
10:32 - If you had listened to the video or read the article, you would know that the project required a remote location away from populated areas. Please look up Google Maps and compare Mississippi's coastline to Louisiana's; I hope this answers your question.
Read the article included in the post. SpaceX supposed to dump a bunch of money into improving the marshlands and environment. Mississippi and Alabama have no chance at something like this and didn't even try. Usually it's the company that elects the site and then goes to the state anyway. Space X needs a flight path that is over unpopulated areas. Perfect there but not in the other two states. However, we have industries on the coast that can take advantage of this project. The waterways and natural gas pipelines line up for this project as well.
Mississippi "landed" all the Data Centers that will likely be fundamental to the tech support systems related to this project, and others.
Well said, Kingfish!
“Polar Orbit” Now that’s a giggly wicket…
11:10
we didnt "land" data centers, those assholes decided to put them here, there is a difference. I have not met one single person who is like "data centers, yayyyyyyy!!!!!"
Not weapons - cash to grease local political palms.
Gulf of America
Environmental impact aside, and not ignoring it but it is a separate TBD issue, things like this do create a lot of permanent jobs and regional support industry. Plus, whether you like Musk or not, he does not seem to shy away from putting a lot of money into something he wants to make/build/accomplish as long as he does not see it as being wasted/grifted. If none of the "locals" in the region try to get stupid and greedy, this could be a major economic development for the entire region, including Mississippi. See the hot-roddin' contractor fiasco up Memphis way as lessons for all parties involved.
Good for our neighbor! There was really only a couple of options considering the constraints. Coastal Louisiana swamps, or southern Florida swamps. And Florida has enough stuff already.
While it is a good ways away, and on the other side of the boot, I hope it brings some economic stimulus to the MS Gulf Coast, especially with Stennis. Property values in Hancock Parish may continue to rise!
11:39 Perhaps I should introduce myself as I'm someone who wouldn't mind a data center in my area (with certain limitations of course.)
You see, I live just south of BFE and I have terrible power reliability. Our backup generator ran over 1 week last year. The roads I use are atrocious and the county roads have grass so tall on the right-of-way it is approaching the level of the road signs.
I never had the opportunity to sign up for cable, much less a decent wired internet service. Even AT&T discontinued the antiquated DSL in my area several months ago. They say fiber is "just around the corner" but realistically its a year or 2 away.
I have to drive over 10 miles to get fuel, and even further just to purchase basic groceries. Some may consider it idyllic; and yes, it does have some benefits. Our water pressure is good, so I have no complaints about that. And no, I wouldn't want for a ginormous data center 1/2 mile down the road lit up like a Christmas tree, humming and sucking our pipes dry. But I would like some level of prosperity for my area!
I believe all the deficiencies mentioned above would improve, if a facility covering 100 - 200 acres were to locate in my general area. This would raise the ad valorem taxes in my area and provide leverage for our area to have better services - you know, those things that some take for granted such as decent roads, fire protection, police protection, utility services and the like.
The scale of some of these projects is definitely a problem such as the one Meta is building in Richland Parish, La. but that doesn't mean a smaller sized one wouldn't be a benefit an area or region if appropriately sized and spread around.
Data centers... yayyyyyyy.
One good hurricane ought to restore the natural balance.
1:20, you don't think buildings around a rocket blast area are hurricane proof?
The great South African scam, and y’all morons eat it up.
Can't wait to see a rocket launch attempt by a bunch of drunk cajuns.
I wonder how the nutria feel about this recent development?
Jackpot? Did you check out the concessions Louisiana made to land this project? They gave away the land at far below market value and agreed to not collect taxes. Sure Louisiana gets some jobs, though the job numbers are almost always inflated in these initial press releases. That’s not a jackpot for Louisiana, but space x may think they hit one.
I'll be very intersected to see what steps they take to mitigate hurricane damage . They'll have to spend some serious coin on just that part of the project .
You motherfuckers will bitch when jobs leave the state. And then bitch when they come back.
MF'er @4:20, this is Louisiana we're talking about here. We are free to bitch about them all we want to, coming or going.
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