SpaceX wants to build one of the biggest spaceports in the world on the Louisiana coast—a sprawling $100 billion complex near tiny Pecan Island, where marshes, birds, and generations of coastal communities are already living with a rapidly changing landscape. Louisiana sees the project as an economic opportunity—and a potential new source of money to help save its disappearing coast. But for people who live there, the arrival of rockets raises a different question: What happens when the future of space collides with a place that is already struggling to survive?
This episode is hosted by Executive Producer Carlyle Calhoun and Coastal Reporter Michael McEwan. Additional reporting and interview tape from Gulf States Newsroom reporter Drew Hawkins. Our theme music is by Jon Batiste, and our sound designer is Emily Jankowski.
Sea Change is a WWNO and WRKF production. We are part of the NPR Podcast Network and distributed by PRX. Sea Change is made possible with major support from the Gulf Research Program of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. WWNO’s Coastal Desk is supported by the Walton Family Foundation, the Meraux Foundation, and the Greater New Orleans Foundation.
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TRANSCRIPT
Head south and a little west from Lafayette, Louisiana, til you almost reach the Gulf, and this is mostly what you’ll hear.
AMBI
These are sounds from a place called Pecan Island.
But big changes are afoot for this quiet place on the edge of the Gulf.
LANDRY: With today's announcement, we are building a future for Louisiana that knows no boundaries, from the oceans to the Earth, and even to space...
You heard that right–space. That’s Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry at the recent official announcement ceremony to celebrate what may become the world’s largest spaceport. The company behind this grand vision is Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
LANDRY: SpaceX is committing $100 billion dollars of capital investment.
An investment for what has been named Starbase Louisiana, and that 100 billion would be the largest investment in the state’s history.
LANDRY: Make no mistake about it, today is nothing short of a transformational moment. And this project means more than just steel, technology, and capital. It represents jobs for our families, it represents momentum for our communities, and it represents protection for our coast.
The plan is indeed ambitious. Covering at least 125,000 acres, with five launch complexes, rocket-processing facilities, thousands of jobs, and, potentially thousands of rocket launches a year. And promises to help to save the disappearing coast.
I’m Carlyle Calhoun, and you’re listening to Sea Change. Today, why space is coming to the Gulf Coast.
[MIDROLL?]
Clip from SpaceX video: We know how to make the rockets…we can put all that together to fly thousands of times. But none of that matters if we don’t have a place to do it.
That is from a promotional video on SpaceX’s website. Here to tell us more is Coastal Reporter Michael McEwan. Hey Michael.
M: Hey Carlyle.
So as we heard at the top, Governor Landry and his economic development team are really behind the potential of this project. So, Michael, let’s start with the obvious question: Why Pecan Island of all places?
M: Well, it actually makes a lot of sense if you’re looking at it from the perspective of a rocket scientist. Which I am not, but I talked with one named Jonathan McDowell. He’s an astrophysicist and an expert on spaceflight at Durham University in England. And he explained that SpaceX has a problem of sorts. It has launch sites at Cape Canaveral Florida, one in California and another one in StarbaseTexas. But…
JONATHAN: what they're desperately missing is a polar orbit launch site for the Starship.
C: OK, yeah For those of us who have no idea what he’s talking about, please explain.
M: (reacts) so a polar orbit is a specific path where a satellite circles the Earth going from North to South and crossing over the poles. Polar orbit is known as a low Earth Orbit, which means it’s pretty close to the earth (we’re talking like 120 - 620 miles away). I think of it almost like the Gulf Stream or another strong ocean current where in this case a satellite can virtually get inside of it, and then follows this predictable path around the Earth.
C: ok so why does polar orbit matter to SpaceX?
M: Well the big reason is because polar orbits are closer to Earth than other orbits so it makes for a faster connection…remember most of these satellites are being used for internet connection. All of this may seem like it has no relevance to your life at all, but let’s say you play video games or say you trade stocks, this closeness to earth reduces delays, which can be a big deal right?
C: yeah makes sense though I’m not sure either of those examples are relevant to me. But, I guess my next question is why can’t SpaceX reach polar orbit from their other locations you mentioned?
M: Well it’s really about geography – because these rockets have to launch south to get into polar orbit more efficiently and in Texas, that would mean the rockets would fly over Mexico, and in Florida they’d be flying over Cuba and other places. Places where people live, and so you’ve got the danger of falling debris or potential explosions… whereas as Jonathan points out…
JONATHAN: Starbase Louisiana, the site that they've picked a little west of New Orleans, has a really nice stretch of the Gulf southward for 1,000 kilometers until you fly over Chiapas and other parts of Mexico Uh, and so that's a really good long stretch of water that you can launch over heading to polar orbit. Uh, and so not have your, uh, rocket launch stages potentially land on populated areas. And so I think that's the main reason why the Louisiana site is appealing to SpaceX.
C: So basically location location location.
M: Exactly. But Jonathan said Pecan Island has another couple of critical criteria in its favor:
JONATHAN: they obviously also have a supportive local government that's enthusiastic to get the investment. Uh, and the site is moderately isolated. so all in all, it seems like a smart move for SpaceX to pick this as their site.
C: So Pecan Island had the geography, the local government, and the fact that not a whole lot of people live there. But this is where the story gets much bigger than a rocket launch site.
Because Michael, can you explain what SpaceX is eventually planning to launch from Pecan Island.
M: Yeah, so Starlink is a big part of this project...that’s the internet service a lot of people use who live in really remote places where you can’t get regular internet access. And SpaceX is already launching thousands of satellites to continue growing Starlink.
But the company’s ambitions go way beyond that.
It seems that SpaceX is looking at this site near Pecan Island to serve on the frontline of something entirely new: data centers in space.
JONATHAN: the forthcoming boom is expected to be in orbital data centers. Uh, and the demand for computing, especially if the AI bubble doesn't burst, uh, is expected to hugely increase. And so the orbital data center folks who are, you know, SpaceX are talking about a million satellites for the orbital data centers, which, which is, in my opinion, implausible, but it gives you a sense of the ambition of these companies. Uh, you know, they, they would, for preference, like to be in these polar orbits.
C: Wow, first of all, data centers in space sound crazy. And did I understand Jonathan correctly that SpaceX eventually wants a million satellites that will act as data centers…What would that even look like?
M: Yeah, I mean it does sound crazy, and I should say, Jonathan doesn’t think a constellation of a million satellites is plausible…he said that would be extremely difficult to operate safely.
But the important thing to understand for this story is what that tells you about the scale of the ambition of companies like SpaceX.
This isn’t just about a launchpad, it’s about building infrastructure for what SpaceX thinks the next era of the space economy could look like. And it would seem as of now that the site in Louisiana is really the lynchpin in Space X’s plans to spearhead that market.
C: So even if it’s not a million satellites, I mean we are talking big numbers…how many rockets are they talking about launching to make this happen?
M: They’ve said they want to target up to 30 launches per day and eventually up to 10,000 per year to make this happen. To give you a sense of where we are now: 2025 saw the most ever commercial space launches in the United States at around 250. So that’s quite a huge jump.
- Pecan Island: Impact on nature / ecosystems
C: C: Ok, so that’s the view from space. But let’s come back to Earth and go to where this is all set to take place. Pecan Island. What’s the area like and what’s your sense on how residents are feeling about the project now that it’s been announced?
M: Well it’s a very small community, no more than 300 people in mostly hunting and fishing camps lining a narrow road on some of the only high land in the area, best known as ‘Cheniers’ in French, or ridges. It’s virtually entirely surrounded by marsh and lakes.
Brooke Broussard lives in Abbeville, up the road. But both of her parents are from Pecan Island and she basically grew up there. And as you’ll hear it’s a very special place to her.
BROOKE: But the connection to the land is real. Um, whenever I drive from Abbeville taking Highway 82 to Pecan Island, I imagine it each time that I'm driving…that I'm driving along my umbilical cord. You know, like this is my source in a lot of ways. You know, literally my life source, where I came from, and I find a lot of strength here, and I find a lot of strength in my family history here.M: Brooke is only the latest in a long line of her family that has felt that call of home on Pecan Island. She says one set of grandparents lost four children in Hurricane Audrey after storm surge wiped the house from its foundation. The family spent most of the storm on their roof.
BROOKE: So whenever I look out in the marsh behind my dad's place, I think about them, and I think about how my family's blood is in this land, you know?
And it was never a question as to whether they would rebuild here, and that's something that, like, really just compels me. And, um, I feel connected to that, you know?
M: And Brooke said it’s not just about the people. Pecan Island sits in between two wildlife refuges, and if you were to ‘zoom out’ and draw a circle around Pecan Island, you’d find at least a few more in relatively close proximity.
BROOKE: It's a magical place. Um, it hum, it hums and it thrives with life, you know? And that scares me a lot about the life that's gonna go away, not just the human life, but, um, everything that we hear right now, right?
C: So this is really vital habitat for many beyond humans.
M: Absolutely. And pretty much anyone who talks about why this place matters brings that up. I spoke to Gabe Giffin, an outdoor educator who lives in Lafayette and refers to himself as Gator Gabe. He used to drive through Pecan Island often on his way to or from work and fell in love with the area. And he says even though promises to protect the area have been made, he’s concerned.
GABE: They can mitigate whatever it is they claim they're the only parts they're gonna destroy. But this is the Mississippi Flyway. There are birds that started way up in Canada. They're gonna end up here and then down in Mexico, in parts further south, Costa Rica, South America. So what happens to them? You know, this is not a feasible place.
M: The Mississippi Flyway a major bird migration route that traces the Mississippi River from its end in Louisiana to its beginning, in Canada. Millions and millions of birds – about 40 percent of all migrating birds in North America – use the flyway to travel to and from as far as Patagonia. For birds returning north from a warm winter somewhere south, Pecan Island and the area surrounding it is some of the first land you see after a long crossing of the Gulf of Mexico. Not to mention all kinds of water birds and even the endangered whooping cranes call this area home.
C: And something you brought up that I think is really interesting: people you spoke to aren’t necessarily saying, “We don’t want development anywhere.” They aren’t necessarily anti-industry.
M: Yeah that is what Gabe said to me, but he also has other concerns.
GABE: “It's too beautiful, and it's too precious down here. Louisiana is a welcoming place. But they need to start talking to us and enlightening us as what it is they plan to do.
M: so Gabe is also bringing up another big point of contention for people: there has been a real lack of transparency and there was never an opportunity for public comment about plans for a very huge project in a fragile place.
C: And you know, something we haven’t even brought up yet is maybe the most notable thing about the location. The land is disappearing.
M: Right. Coastal land loss is accelerating across Louisiana, and the region around Pecan Island in particular has been dealing with major impacts of that – huge swaths of land have disappeared under the Gulf.
C: And here is what is maybe the most interesting part of this story: Governor Landry and others are saying this project could actually help us protect the coast. As many listeners know, the state has spent decades working to slow down land loss — building marsh, restoring wetlands, protecting shorelines. And all of that of course costs a lot of money. And part of this deal is that SpaceX has promised a whole lot of funding for coastal restoration, right?
M: Right, although no one seems to know the details about how much money and it also doesn’t seem that any amount has been officially committed.
But, essentially, Landry says, this new industry can change things in Louisiana. Needed economic development yes, but also paying to protect the place where they are building it.
OPTIONS: Too often, Louisiana was left with the scars while others enjoyed the profit. Today, what Elon Musk and his team is offering Louisiana is different. They are offering us a permanent future and lasting prosperity
M: I wanted to know more about what coastal restoration experts think about all this so I called up James Karst, who is the communications director of the Center to Restore Coastal Louisiana. And he summed the situation up like this:
JAMES: building land, which we have to do here in Louisiana, um, you know, creating marsh and, uh, dredging, th-these things cost a lot of money, and, um, a lot of our coastal program has been funded with money from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement. And, uh, yeah, i-it's correct that that money is going to run out. Uh, the current projections are in, in less than a decade that that money runs out. And, um, you know, deciding to no longer fund, uh, restoration projects would frankly be a catastrophically bad decision, right? So, um, we need to figure out, um, some long-term funding solutions. So, uh, if this can be a part of that, then that, you know, that absolutely addresses that problem.
C: The fact that the BP money is going to eventually run out has been the issue looming in the background of all the work that is being done to save the coast. Louisiana has a very ambitious and very expensive - 50 year multibillion dollar plan called the Coastal Master Plan…which as James explains…
JAMES: You know, the, the master plan is, um, really a wonderful blueprint for, uh, the types of projects that we need to restore and protect our, our coast and to, uh, safeguard our, our future. But, you know, one of the, one of the things that is keeping us from implementing all of them is that we just don't have enough money. So, yeah
C: So SpaceX’s money could do a lot of good. But you asked James this question:
M: I suppose I wonder, um, looking at, and not even just SpaceX specifically, but just I guess this idea of one company or one investor being a main source of funding for coastal restoration. Do you see there being kind of some sort of inherent risk there or, or, uh, you know, is the opportunity just kind of too good?
JAMES: Well, it could be both things. You know, I, I think obviously there's an inherent risk. Um, y- you know, we even have the, uh, e- expressions to describe that, you know, don't put all your eggs in one basket, uh, e- et cetera, you know? And, um, y- you know, if SpaceX were to go bankrupt, you know, like where, where would that leave us? So, um, absolutely there are risks. Um, but at the same time, when you're, um, when you're staring down the type of slow-moving, uh, catastrophe that we've been experiencing here for over a century, you know, y- you don't really have the luxury of saying, "Well, you know, w- we'll wait for the next big thing," you know?
M: But as Space X and some high-ranking Louisiana officials are touting the potential of what this project could mean for coastal restoration in the state, there’s also a kind of counter-current running under the project: The Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates the commercial space industry, is working to strike down parts of about a dozen major environmental laws to make the process of projects like Starbase Louisiana cheaper and easier.
C: Elon Musk, who owns Space X, is of course very closely tied to President Trump, who issued an executive order about a year ago that began this streamlining effort.
M: And you know there are also the local efforts: state lawmakers have worked to pass a host of tax breaks and other laws making Louisiana more attractive to aerospace companies. In fact, the tax break given to SpaceX may be the largest ever in US history. And some of the new laws take away locals’ rights to sue SpaceX if there are any issues.
JAMES: we've seen that there has been, um, a major effort by, um, people in positions of power to, to court industry and to kind of cut obstacles to make it easier for them to, to say yes, you know, to, to sign on the dotted line and to begin, um, locating here in Louisiana. And, um, you know, I think you can see it as, as, as part of that, you know, an effort to, um, to sweeten the pot, uh, I suppose, sweeten the deal
M: James left it like this, and I think a lot of people feel this way, he said he’s not a cheerleader for the project, it’s fair to have some concerns. But on the other hand, it’s a lot of money for a place and for projects that desperately need it.
JAMES: I recognize that the project is happening and, um, what I would like to, to be able to do is to ensure that it, uh, exists as a, as a positive force for Louisiana. ENDING:
C: What’s interesting is that both sides of this huge project are talking about the future. SpaceX imagines thousands of satellite launches a year, data centers in space, a whole new space economy, launched from near tiny Pecan Island.
And when many Louisianans see the money next to this project, they imagine jobs and economic development. And maybe even marshes protecting communities, habitat for birds and fish and shrimp, a landscape that could survive another century.
M: Which leaves us with a big question: can both of those futures exist in the same place?
Thanks for listening to Sea Change! This episode was hosted me Carlyle Calhoun and Michael McEwan. Additional reporting and interview tape from Gulf States Newsroom reporter Drew Hawkins. Our theme music is by Jon Batiste and our sound designer is Emily Jankowski.
Sea Change is a WWNO and WRKF production. We are part of the NPR Podcast Network and distributed by PRX.
Sea Change is made possible with major support from the Gulf Research Program of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. WWNO’s Coastal Desk is supported by the Walton Family Foundation, the Meraux Foundation, and the Greater New Orleans Foundation.
We’ll be back in two weeks.
