It has been known for a while that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk's Starship would eventually launch from Florida, but now SpaceX is saying it may happen as early as the end of this year as the aerospace company ambitiously confirmed that it is pushing to launch from Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) by the end of 2025.
The news was publicly announced during the March 3 webcast of the Starship launch attempt from the company's Starbase at Boca Chica, Texas.
"We plan to complete the Starship launch pad at Pad 39A later this year and pending the completion of the environmental reviews, SpaceX intends to conduct the first Starship launch from Florida … later this year," said Christopher Gebhardt, a SpaceX spokesperson.
The effort includes at least $1.8 billion of SpaceX capital investment and will bring an estimated 600 new full-time jobs to Florida's Space Coast by 2030.
"With 600 new full-time jobs and the historic addition of Starship launches from Florida, this expansion strengthens our economy, grows our aerospace workforce and solidifies our leadership in the next generation of space exploration," said U.S. Rep. Mike Haridopolos. "This investment is a testament to SpaceX's confidence in Florida's central role in spaceflight, and we are proud to support the groundbreaking missions that will lift off from our shores."
While SpaceX acknowledges the U.S. Space Force and Federal Aviation Administration environmental reviews are not set to be released until late 2025, construction of the giant Gigabay at KSC, which will be used to stack and finalize the 232-ft.-tall Super Heavy boosters (lower-stages) before flight, could begin as soon as April 2025.
Also, the new Starship tower standing at Kennedy Space Center Pad 39A, will likely be finalized shortly, Florida Today noted.
SpaceX's ambitious announcement noted that in expanding Starship operations into Florida, it would bring "production and launch capabilities to the Space Coast as Starship flight testing, development and launch cadence continues to pick up pace at Starbase in Texas."
The 380-ft.-tall Gigabay facility would fall short of NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building, which has a height of 525 ft. But at its height, the new complex would still be a recognizable feature looming in the distance on the approach to Cape Canaveral and give the general public a glimpse of SpaceX's next generation launch system.
The proposed SpaceX Gigabay will be an addition to SpaceX's current Robert's Road facilities at KSC.
Florida's Gigabay to Help Send Humans to Moon
In total, SpaceX's Starship towers more than 400 ft. in height, larger than any rocket ever built. Its 33 engines give off 16 million lbs. of thrust at liftoff. For reference, the Saturn V moon rocket was only 363 ft. tall and had a maximum thrust of 7.6 million lbs. when launched.
Starship is not only planned to be SpaceX's next workhorse rocket, but its upper stage also is being tapped by NASA to act as a human lander for the Artemis III mission, aimed at returning humans to the lunar surface no earlier than 2027.
If the Trump administration allows the plan to go forward, Starship will dock with the Orion spacecraft in lunar orbit before ferrying astronauts down to the Moon's surface.
SpaceX also has repeatedly stated hopes of launching an uncrewed Starship to Mars by late 2026, when the planet will be close to Earth. This has been a stated goal of both Musk and President Trump. Should an uncrewed Starship to Mars happen in 2026, a crewed mission could follow two years later.
This timeline, though, also depends on how soon Starship can overcome its operational problems and begin to run smoothly. While a recent unmanned flight saw a successful booster catch, the ship was lost less than 10 minutes after liftoff when it broke up over the Turks and Caicos Islands.
It remains to be seen how Starship improves on March 3, 2025's Flight 8, which was scrubbed shortly after lift-off due to a booster rocket issue.
As yet, Starship has not reached an orbital flight from Texas or successfully returned its upper stage to the launch pad, although by January 2025, SpaceX was able to twice catch the first-stage booster with the launch tower's "chopsticks."
Full return and reusability are planned for future flights, SpaceX said, and a return of the Starship to the KSC launch pad could come as soon as Flight 9, although no exact date has been determined.
