SpaceX has unveiled plans to build a massive new rocket launch complex on Pecan Island in Vermilion Parish (a coastal wetland area in southern Louisiana), investing $100 billion to create what it is calling Starbase Louisiana. The 125,000-acre site would eventually support thousands of Starship launches per year, with construction beginning next year and the first launch targeted for 2029, according to SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell. The project, which SpaceX says will create over 3,000 jobs at average salaries nearly double the local norm, is intended to expand the company's capacity to deploy Starlink satellites and AI-processing hardware into orbit, though it faces scrutiny over its environmental impact on protected migratory bird habitats and fragile coastal marshlands.