Louisiana to Acquire Roughly 130,000 Acres of Marshland Along the Northern Gulf of Mexico Coast, According to the Times-picayune | the New

Gov. Jeff Landry is expected to announce the agreement later this month. The property, an 18-mile stretch southwest of Lafayette known as Pecan Island, became available through a legal settlement resolving dozens of lawsuits blaming ExxonMobil for pollution and coastal land loss.

No Louisiana officials have publicly commented on the deal. In May, SpaceX responded to rumors on X, saying, "It's no secret that we intend to launch Starship a lot, targeting thousands of flights per year. That cadence will require the ability to launch from many different locations, so we are constantly exploring to find viable sites to expand Starship operations in the future, both domestically and internationally.

The Louisiana legislature earlier this year passed bills offering aerospace incentives, including liability protections and property tax breaks. The agreement reportedly includes provisions for coastal restoration and preservation of the sensitive marshland, which supports wildlife and buffers hurricanes. The site offers advantages: proximity to the Intracoastal Waterway with deep-water access, more available real estate than Starbase, and closeness by barge to SpaceX's Starfactory in South Texas.

Its southward-facing location could enable polar orbits, likely key for SpaceX's planned orbital data center satellites, with a short traverse over Mexico nearly 1,000 miles down range. The area also sits a few dozen miles north of the Henry Hub natural gas distribution hub, easing methane supply for launches. Environmental and logistical concerns could disrupt the local community, as seen in South Texas, where Starbase has drawn opposition but also brought economic gains—SpaceX employs about 5,000 people directly in the Brownsville region, supporting up to 24,000 direct and indirect jobs and boosting tourism."