Starbase Louisiana

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And how soon until this? Next year?

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Map of the Starbase Louisiana area. (I don't think that it's exactly to scale.) The white outline is the former Exxon property that SpaceX purchased. I'm not sure, but I think that the red properties have also been purchased by SpaceX from other owners. The Rockefeller National Wildlife Refuge and the White Lake Wetlands on the left and the Audubon Society and State Wildlife Refuge on the right are expected to stay. The little unincorporated community of Pecan Island in the middle, with about 300 largely Cajun residents in various small properties strung out along a road is expected to stay.

The part of the property that SpaceX is expected to develop is marked very roughly by the blue dotted line. The blue dots mark the location where SpaceX says that it is taking core samples according to a local government filing. The launch pads will be along the southern edge towards the Gulf shore, then propellant and deluge tank farms immediately above, and natural gas purification/liquifaction facilities (there's lots of natural gas there, which originally attracted Exxon) and air separation plants (that pull LOX and liquid nitrogen out of the air) above that, closer to Pecan Island. The vertical assembly building and industrial buildings will be to the right, along the Intracoastal Waterway with ship and barge access. There will be an airport and employee housing tucked into the property somewhere, perhaps near the upper right of the dotted line area which would put them near the industrial area and away from the pads.

All in all, the developed part looks to be about 25,000 acres (a very roomy 39 square miles, larger than Manhattan or the city of San Francisco) out of the total 120,000 acre (188 square mile) Exxon property. Given that the pads will be some distance apart, much of the launch area will remain largely undeveloped, albeit very noisy.

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More closeup of the area to be developed:

The green dots mark where core samples are being drilled at the 10 launch pads in five groups of two, stretched out along 7 1/2 miles of coast.

The purple dots mark where five ground support tank farms will go, one for each two paired pads.

THe red dots mark where other facilities will go. The exxon dock will remain and be developed. Freshwater bayou is currently being dredged to make the Exxon dock better able to unload ocean going ships delivering heavy steel and equipment. A Starship factory might go near the dock slong with a huge vertical assembly building even larger than the Texas and Florida Gigabays. Inevitably, it's being called the Terabay. The red dots up Louisiana highway 3147 (actually a two lane road) indicate additional industrial buildings and employee housing and stuff like that.

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