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SpaceX plans to invest $100 billion building a vast new Starship launch complex in Louisiana, with construction due to begin in 2027 and the first launches targeted for 2029.
Dubbed Starbase Louisiana, the proposed facility in Vermilion Parish on the Gulf Coast will cover roughly 125,000 acres and is designed to support thousands of launches of SpaceX’s gigantic Starship rocket every year.
So yes, the main news here is that SpaceX is spending $100 billion on what is essentially an enormous rocket city in Louisiana. Apparently simply having a launch pad is terribly old-fashioned now.
The site is expected to include five launch complexes, each with two launch pads and its own propellant infrastructure, alongside vehicle processing facilities, power generation, propellant production, deep-water shipping facilities, housing and even an airport.
At that point, calling it a “launch site” feels a little like describing JFK as a particularly elaborate bus stop. The company’s CEO says “SpaceX makes sci-fi real.”
The sheer scale reflects SpaceX’s plans for Starship, its fully reusable super-heavy rocket system. The company wants to use the spacecraft to carry huge amounts of cargo into orbit, deploy satellites and, eventually, transport people and equipment to the Moon and Mars.
NASA is also relying on a modified version of Starship for its Artemis lunar program, meaning SpaceX needs to turn something currently regarded as a major rocket launch into something considerably more routine.
Preferably without anyone nearby having to replace their windows after every departure.
Coming Soon: Rush Hour, But Vertically
SpaceX ultimately wants to conduct thousands of Starship launches annually, which would represent an extraordinary increase in the frequency of spaceflight. If successful, rockets could start looking less like occasional national events and more like a particularly aggressive public transport timetable.
And Louisiana appears to be getting rather a lot in return for lending SpaceX a sizable chunk of its coastline.
The company says Starbase Louisiana will create more than 3,000 direct jobs, with thousands more expected indirectly as suppliers and other aerospace businesses establish themselves around the site. The direct positions are expected to be relatively well paid, giving state officials an obvious reason to be enthusiastic about having several enormous rockets move into the neighborhood.
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry has presented the project as a transformative economic investment for the region, while SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell has emphasized the company’s commitment to working with local communities.
There is, however, the small matter of where all this is being built.
The proposed Starbase sits in an environmentally sensitive coastal area containing wetlands and wildlife habitat. SpaceX says large portions of the property will remain wetlands and has pledged conservation and restoration efforts, but environmental groups and some residents have raised concerns about what industrial development — not to mention thousands of rocket launches — could mean for the surrounding ecosystem.
Which is understandable. “Thousands of launches per year” is not generally the phrase conservationists hope to hear immediately after “important wildlife habitat.”
For SpaceX, though, Louisiana is about considerably more than adding another launch pad. The company is attempting to create an entire industrial ecosystem capable of building, processing, fueling, and repeatedly launching Starships at a scale the space industry has never previously attempted.
If everything goes according to plan, construction begins next year and the first Starship will blast off from Louisiana in 2029.
And if SpaceX eventually achieves its goal of making spaceflight as routine as air travel, future residents of the Gulf Coast may have another familiar sound to add to the frogs, cicadas and thunderstorms.
A 120-meter rocket leaving for Mars before breakfast.
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Claude Gets a Better Memory, So You Can Finally Stop Repeating Yourself
Anthropic has given Claude a memory upgrade, allowing the AI to remember the same information across regular chats and Claude Cowork — presumably ending the time-honored tradition of explaining your job to your chatbot every Monday morning.
The shared memory means information learned in chat, such as project priorities, deadlines, colleagues, and working preferences, can follow users into Cowork, and vice versa. Claude will also update memories during conversations rather than waiting until the chat ends.
Users remain in charge of the AI’s increasingly impressive recollection. Saved memories can be viewed, edited, or deleted individually, while memory can be paused or reset entirely. Sensitive subjects including health, race, religion, and politics are excluded by default, although users can opt in to remembering some sensitive topics.
Memory is on by default for Free, Pro, and Max users across web, desktop, and mobile.
So Claude may now remember your deadlines, preferences, and boss. Whether you wanted reminding about all three is another matter.
X Tells Nitter to Quitter
X Corp. has apparently had enough of Nitter, the privacy-friendly alternative front end for viewing posts on X, with the project announcing it has received cease-and-desist letters demanding its permanent takedown.
Nitter said the letters were sent on August 24 and target both Nitter instances and the project’s repository. Nitter.net is now offline and development has stopped “for the time being” while its developer seeks legal advice.
The project had been running for seven years, offering people a way to browse X without quite so much X getting in the way.
Nitter’s developer isn’t commenting further for now.
It seems X has finally found a Nitter feature it really likes: the off switch.
ChatGPT Work Can Now Log In for You — Your Password Remains Blissfully Uninvolved
ChatGPT Work can now use its computer and browser to sign into websites on web and mobile without ChatGPT seeing your username or password, according to OpenAI.
That means users can hand over some of life’s more thrilling administrative adventures, from booking DMV appointments and scheduling package pickups to filling out permit applications and dealing with reimbursement paperwork.
Work can also tackle business chores, including pulling invoices from email, updating vendor portals, analyzing ad campaigns, and finding job candidates.
This means ChatGPT is increasingly capable of doing the online errands everyone has spent years carefully avoiding.
The AI revolution promised to transform humanity. Step one is finally dealing with that car registration.
