SpaceX’s Starship Starbase construction set to begin in Florida
By Meghan Moriarty
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BREVARD COUNTY, Florida (WESH) — Plans for SpaceX Starship Starbase inching closer to reality in Florida.
While it’s listed as a “work in progress,” construction for the SpaceX Gigabay is set to start on April 1, according to documents from the Federal Aviation Administration.
“This thing is huge. There’s no doubt about it,” Don Platt said. “They definitely need a lot of space to do different types of maneuvering operations to configure the Starship and its various varieties for missions — both for Earth orbit and for lunar and Mars missions.”
Platt is an associate professor of space systems at the Florida Institute of Technology. He said SpaceX has a tendency to move fast. Starship is said to be able to carry 100 crew members at a time, but so far, it hasn’t had any crewed launches.
Research scientist Ken Kramer said that even with this construction timeline, he doesn’t think we’ll make it to Mars in 2026.
“I don’t think he’s gonna get to Mars in 2026,” Kramer said. “Certainly not with people. Not with Starship. They haven’t even had a successful enough mission.”
A little over a month ago, a Starship spacecraft exploded over the North Atlantic near Turks and Caicos, with several tourists recording videos of the falling debris.
“They build a little, test a little, fail a little, and then try again,” Platt said. “They’ll probably keep most of that in Texas because I don’t think the Space Coast is the right place for that type of development. Once it becomes more operational and they get some of the bugs out, I think you’ll see it here on a regular basis.”
Construction is scheduled to run from April 1, 2025, to Aug. 2, 2026.
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