Starbase Louisiana: estimated development timeline

Construction from 2027 and a first launch targeted 2029 are the only public dates. Here are the phases in between, when each is likely to land, and which trades get bought in each.

Checked 29 August 2026

Two dates are public: construction from 2027, and a first launch targeted as soon as 2029. Everything between them is unannounced.

Read this carefully. The announced dates are sourced on the project page. The phase order and the windows are Bizer's estimate, built from what was announced and from how coastal industrial projects of this size actually sequence. Nobody outside SpaceX has a schedule, and anyone selling you one does not have it either.

Now to groundbreaking, Bizer estimate

Permits, surveys and the paperwork nobody photographs. Before a machine moves, the project has to clear federal wetlands review, an FAA process for a launch site, and Louisiana environmental permitting, with dockets expected to open in 2027.

This phase is quiet and it is where the schedule is really decided. It also buys real work: somebody has to survey 125,000 acres of marsh, drill it, and document what lives on it.

Buys: boundary and topographic survey, wetland delineation, geotechnical drilling, environmental consulting, aerial and LiDAR, boat and airboat support, cultural resources survey.

2027, on the announced plan

Access, fill and laydown. Pecan Island sits on a chenier, a shell ridge in marsh, reached by Louisiana Highway 82. Nothing heavy gets built until there is a way in, ground firm enough to carry it, and somewhere to stage it.

Expect this to be the longest and least glamorous phase, and the one with the most local content.

Buys: site work and earthmoving, aggregate hauling, marine and barge, dredging, pile driving, trucking and oversize, traffic control, equipment rental.

2027 to 2029, Bizer estimate

Power, water and somewhere to sleep. The announcement names power generation and residential housing as part of the campus. In a parish with almost no rooms, the workforce has to be housed and fed before it can be large.

Camp infrastructure usually runs in parallel with earthwork rather than after it, which is why a catering or lodging business should not think of itself as late cycle here.

Buys: electrical and instrumentation, mechanical and piping, camp catering and lodging, water and wastewater, bulk fuel, security and gate control, safety and medical, waste handling.

2028 to 2029, Bizer estimate

First launch complex and vehicle processing. A first launch in 2029 means one complex, not ten. This is the concrete and steel phase: deep foundations in soft ground, flame trench and deluge works, tower steel, and the high spec welding that goes with cryogenic service.

Buys: concrete and formwork, structural steel, welding and fabrication, cranes and rigging, industrial coatings, scaffolding, instrumentation and controls, nondestructive testing.

2028 into the 2030s, Bizer estimate

Propellant production, deep water and an airport. Each is an industrial project in its own right, and they run long after the first launch rather than before it.

Buys: cryogenic and process piping, tank erection, marine construction, dredging, paving and airfield, high voltage, heavy civil.

2029 target, announced

First Starship launch. Treat "as soon as" as doing real work in that sentence. A launch does not end the buying. An operating spaceport is a permanent industrial customer: maintenance, logistics, inspection, catering, waste, security, and the ordinary services a workforce of thousands needs every day in a place that currently has none of them.

Against the only precedent

Boca Chica, Texas is the only comparison that exists.

• Site chosen. Boca Chica 2014, Pecan Island 2026.
• Construction began. Boca Chica 2015, Pecan Island 2027 planned.
• First orbital launch. Boca Chica April 2023, Pecan Island 2029 targeted.
• Construction to launch. Boca Chica about eight years, Pecan Island about two years planned.

That gap is the single most important thing on this page, and it cuts both ways.

Why Louisiana could genuinely be faster. Boca Chica was inventing the vehicle while building the site. Starship exists now and has flown. SpaceX also builds faster than almost anyone, and the site is enormous, so many crews can work at once.

Why two years is still very aggressive. This is 125,000 acres of subsiding coastal marsh, ten miles from open water, on one highway, in hurricane country, needing federal wetlands permits. Ground has to be made before anything can be built on it.

Our honest read: 2027 for first earthmoving is plausible if permitting goes smoothly, and a 2029 launch would be remarkable. A first launch in the early 2030s would still make this the fastest large spaceport build in American history. Neither outcome changes what a contractor should do this year.

How to tell whether it is on track

Large projects announce themselves through public filings long before they announce themselves through announcements.

1. Army Corps of Engineers public notice. A Section 404 wetlands permit application becomes a public notice with a comment period. The clearest public signal the design is real and specific.
2. FAA activity for the site. Its environmental and licensing steps are public.
3. Louisiana DEQ permit applications. Air and water permits for propellant production and power generation are filed with the state and are public.
4. DOTD work on Louisiana Highway 82. Highway and bridge lettings are published, and access has to be solved before heavy delivery.
5. A named prime or program manager. The moment an engineering and construction firm is announced, your target changes from SpaceX to that firm's supply chain.
6. Survey and geotech crews on the ground. The least formal indicator and often the earliest.

What it means for you

Get into the supplier registry while it is close to empty. Qualification happens before procurement, and the work does not arrive as one contract in 2027. It arrives as a decade of packages.