00:11We know how to make the rockets. We know how to make the rockets at rate. We know what the
00:17rocket needs and how to make the things that the rocket needs. We can put all of that together to
00:22fly thousands of times, but none of that matters if you don't have a place to do it.
00:30We are in southern Louisiana on the Gulf Coast, in Vermilion Parish, and more specifically in the coastal marshes just
00:39south of Pecan Island. We're here to build a spaceport.
00:47SpaceX started looking for a high-rate launch site in earnest probably seven years ago, and there's kind of a
00:55few places on Earth where we can do what we need to do to launch Starship fully reusable at rate,
01:01meaning thousands of launches a year.
01:02You got to have a place that's on the coast, that there aren't a lot of folks near where you're
01:08going to build your launch pads.
01:09You need ample gas, and you need the right trajectories to do all of the missions that we want.
01:14And so there's really few places on Earth where you can do this, and Louisiana happens to be a perfect
01:19candidate for that.
01:35What do you think? Great. Yeah, it seems perfect.
01:40This road basically, so this is all serviced offshore oil and gas, right, since like the 1950s, and this used
01:47to be what they call Freshwater City, and so that's where the old dock space was, and so that's kind
01:53of the bones of what you see it.
01:54This place will truly, like, truly change the world. At what point does civilization get to know a life in
01:59the stars?
02:00Yeah. You can't do that launching...
02:02You need serious tonnage. See the serious tonnage or, you know...
02:07You scale!
02:07If you want to go out there and make life multi-planetary, and not just be a tourist, you know,
02:13send a few people, come back, and, you know, if you want to go there and, like, actually build a
02:17self-growing civilization, you need serious tonnage.
02:20We're going to bring, I think, probably worth of 10,000 really exciting jobs to Louisiana, and, you know, it's
02:29kind of jobs that are so exciting, you can't wait to go to work in the morning.
02:32Right. You know, it's super inspiring, and we believe in having a really fun work environment, and it's, yeah, it's
02:39hard to beat rockets, frankly.
02:40I didn't know you were employing so many people in Louisiana.
02:42Absolutely.
02:43We talk about Louisiana is like this mechanic shop, right? And the interesting part about the whole project is that
02:48the project is actually built on the foundation that built Louisiana, which is the energy industry, right?
02:54So you're just laying a great project on type of something that Louisiana is ready for.
03:04When people think of SpaceX, they think of a lot of engineers and scientists and things like that, but actually
03:10the most common job at SpaceX is technician or welder or tube bender.
03:16These are actually the people who add the most value from going from raw material in the door to finished
03:22rockets out the other door.
03:23They're passionate about their craft, they're excited to come to work every day, and they know that they're doing something
03:28that makes a difference both in the lives of people that are here today and for many generations to come.
03:32Seventy percent of our workforce at Starbase Texas is local to the Rio Grande Valley, and we're really proud of
03:38that fact, and it's something that we will replicate at even a larger scale here in Pecan Island.
03:47Well, I think it's been incredibly exciting for the people of Louisiana. We'll make it such that the public can
03:53come and see, you know, like they do at Cape Canaveral, you know, people go to see Disney World, but
03:59then they'll go over to Cape Canaveral to watch the rockets launch.
04:01All of our launch sites are actually nestled next to wildlife refuges, whether it's Vandenberg or Cape Canaveral or Boca
04:07Chica, and so we're good at managing both of them.
04:12In order for us to build our infrastructure, to bring the launch pad, to bring the rockets here, we're going
04:17to have to literally shore up the shoreline.
04:19It's going to be a historic coastal restoration in partnership with Pecan Island and the state and Vermillion Parish to
04:25bring the marsh back, to make sure we have proper storm protection.
04:29That's actually some of the first work that you will see happening on site is gaining access to the property
04:35so that we can get equipment in to start restoring the wetland
04:38and making sure that we stop the erosion on the shoreline.
04:43It's going to be a fantastic partnership with Louisiana. Thank you.
04:46Wonderful.
04:47Yeah, and thank you for your support again.
04:48Oh, no, not a problem.
04:49We haven't picked a name yet.
04:50I think Starbase is cool.
04:51Yeah, I love it.
04:52Starbase, Louisiana.
04:53All right, first here first.
04:55Yeah.
04:56We can't wait to serve you all the first pot of gumbo.
04:58Sounds good.
04:59There we go.
05:00There we go.
05:01We can't wait.
05:05No, no.
05:08Oh.
05:09I don't know.
05:46I don't know.
