First came the rumors. Something about a rocket launch facility on Pecan Island along Louisiana’s coastline in Vermilion Parish. Brooke Broussard overheard two guys talking about it at a bar one night a few months ago.
“They said Blue Origin at the time, so I wasn't sure if it was gonna be Blue Origin or SpaceX,” she said.
It felt like more than just pub murmurs to Broussard, who is about as Pecan Island as a person can be — she can point out the beach where she said she was conceived.
There was a “weight” to the rumors, she said, because when she started asking around her community, she started getting “looks,” “nods,” and “discussions about NDAs” often framed along the lines of: “Well, I heard it from so-and-so, but don’t say I told you.”
Then, in late July, came the white Xs painted on the roads with no explanation, followed by helicopters circling over the coastal marsh.
“And that would make sense with the sudden helicopter presence, that they're surveying the land, aerially,” Broussard said. “Talk about ominous, huh? X marks the spot.”
Last week, the rumors became a reality. Vermilion Parish is getting the largest spaceport in the world.
On August 25, downtown Abbeville was closed off to the public with barricades for an invitation-only event described by officials as a “major economic development announcement.” A packed reception hall was filled with executives, developers and politicians.
The event started with a fully produced, action-movie-style video depicting Elon Musk landing in a helicopter as industrial techno music played in the background. On the ground, waiting for him, was Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry.
“What do you think?” Landry asks Musk in the video.
“Great, seems perfect,” Musk says.
SpaceX is building a 125,000-acre, $100 billion rocket launch facility on Louisiana’s coastline that will fire about 30 rockets per day — thousands per year — company officials said in the Marvelesque film. It’s part of the company’s larger plans to expand its Starlink satellite internet service and potentially power Musk’s ambitions for interstellar travel.
It’ll be the company’s fourth launch site and its largest, according to Louisiana Economic Development. At full buildout, the agency says the facility will include five launch complexes — each with two launch pads — along with propellant farms, a propellant production facility, power generation, vehicle processing and housing for employees and their families.
In the video, Musk says the site will bring around 10,000 jobs to Louisiana, though the state and company officials say the project will create 3,000 new jobs over the next decade.
With the deal already done, the background music switches to a droning, celestial hum as Musk and Landry discuss the facility’s potential name.
“I think Star Base is cool,” Musk says. “Star Base Louisiana.”
“I love it,” Landry says. “We can’t wait to serve y’all the first pot of gumbo.”
New laws and code names
The deal comes about two months after SpaceX went public in the largest initial public offering in history, a debut that briefly made Musk, already the world's richest person, a trillionaire. And it’s the first major project Landry has announced since Gulf States Newsroom investigations revealed his administration’s widespread use of nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) to conceal negotiations behind large industrial developments.
It’s a new practice under Landry, who has required more than 100 state employees to sign NDAs, and signed one himself with Meta related to the company’s $50 billion data center in Richland Parish.
SpaceX was no different. Dozens of local and state officials signed NDAs for “Project Osprey” — the codename for the launch facility.
Landry also signed new laws written specifically for aerospace companies, including exempting them from property taxes, liability and nuisance claims related to noise, vibrations, heat exhaust and sonic booms and public records laws.
Records from Louisiana Economic Development show what the NDAs kept under wraps. As reported by Wes Muller at Louisiana Illuminator, state officials offered SpaceX the largest incentive package in Louisiana and possibly the country’s history — tax breaks valued at an estimated $27.5 billion.
The property tax exemption alone amounts to nearly $23.8 billion over 25 years in exchange for SpaceX paying the Vermilion Parish police jury, sheriff, and school district $25 million a year, meaning the company will pay the parish about $1 for every $38 in property taxes it would have otherwise paid.
Asked about the agreements and transparency concerns following the announcement, Landry told the Gulf States Newsroom that “corporate America” is competitive, and “they want an opportunity to be able to have discussions with elected officials and to ensure that policies meet their expectations.”
“You think I want Texas to steal my thunder? You think I want other states to know what we're working on?” Landry told the Gulf States Newsroom. “Quite frankly, that's what has continued to happen to Louisiana before I became governor.”
‘He just ramrodded it through’
The site of the future spaceport is about a 45-minute drive south from Abbeville and lies between two wildlife refuges. At Kim Nehrbass’ camp on Pecan Island, he said the pristine coastal marsh is a “paradise.”
“It’s just mesmerizing,” he said. “With family, by yourself — go out in the boat before sunrise and fish, watch the sunset coming back. It’s just amazing, amazing space. It’s very calming.”
Nehrbass watched the SpaceX announcement on a livestream. He said it was “unconscionable.”
“[Landry] is thanking everybody for making it happen. He didn’t ask anybody if they wanted to do it, the people of the state,” Nehrbass said. “He just ramrodded it through. It was the same thing with Meta. I guess it’s the same way those people feel.”
Outdoor educator Gabe Giffin said he’s worried about the environmental impacts of the facility’s daily rocket launches, especially on the millions of birds that stop at Pecan Island as they make their way along the Mississippi Flyway, heading south for the winter.
“Where we’re at, this is the last ledge before they leap off, if you will,” Giffin said, looking out over the coastal wetlands while on a boat leaving Nehrbass’ camp. “They're going to feed up, power up on those beaches, and fly to Central or South America next.”
SpaceX plans to launch Starship from the site — the largest rocket ever made. At the announcement, the company’s president, Gwynne Shotwell, acknowledged the potential impacts on migratory birds.
“Now the birds might fly away during a launch, but I guarantee they’ll come back,” Shotwell said. “And they come back right away, by the way. As soon as the rocket’s gone, the birds come back. It’s not like months later.”
Seated in the boat with Giffin, Brooke Broussard said she and her friends — who also watched the livestream of the announcement — have been talking about that line all day.
“Why would the birds come back?” she said. “They’re smarter than us, in some ways.”
The birds are only part of what Broussard said she’s afraid of losing. Her connection to the land is real. She choked up talking about it.
“This is my source in a lot of ways,” she said. “My life source, where I came from, where I was conceived, and I find a lot of strength here and I find a lot of strength in my family history here.”
She knows the project isn’t going to be stopped. The deal, as far as she and her neighbors can tell, was finalized before anyone on the island had a say in it.
What she wants now is for people outside of Vermilion Parish to know and understand what was already here — not just what’s coming.
“I don’t want the story to just be: ‘Elon Musk came and conquered,’” she said. “I want the other stories to be told.”
This story was produced by the Gulf States Newsroom, a collaboration between Mississippi Public Broadcasting, WBHM in Alabama, WWNO and WRKF in Louisiana and NPR.
