SpaceX Plans Florida Starship Launch in 2025; Gov. DeSantis Hails Expansion

SpaceX has announced a major expansion of its Starship program into Florida, including plans to launch the massive Starship rocket from the Space Coast in 2025. Starship is the largest, most powerful rocket ever built and is currently undergoing test flights in Texas.

SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell hinted at the news earlier in the day with an enthusiastic social media post, declaring “Really big things are coming to Florida!!!!”

The company plans to invest $1.8 billion to build new infrastructure – from launch pads to a huge assembly facility known as “Gigabay” – at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) and Cape Canaveral, enabling Starship production and launches in Florida.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis welcomed SpaceX’s decision, calling it a “major win” for the state’s space industry and pledging support for the initiative. DeSantis hailed SpaceX’s announcement, highlighting the economic and strategic benefits for the state. “Florida is the present and future of the space industry with leading space companies – like SpaceX – investing in the Free State of Florida,” DeSantis said in a statement. “We welcome SpaceX’s Starship to our state.”

“The state’s partnership with SpaceX includes facilitation by agencies like Space Florida and Florida’s Department of Transportation, aiming to cement the Space Coast as the “nation’s space capital.” The Starship expansion project represents at least a $1.8 billion investment by SpaceX and is expected to create about 600 new jobs on the Space Coast by 2030” DeSantis wrote in a social media post.

Local leaders called the announcement “transformative. “Starship is coming to the Space Coast! This $1.8B investment…is a MAJOR win for our community, bringing hundreds of high-quality jobs and cementing our spot as the leader in American spaceflight. The future of spaceflight is in Florida!” said US Representative Mike Haridopoloas on social media.

SpaceX’s Starship Launch Timeline
SpaceX said on March 3rd that they hope to conduct the first Starship launch from Florida by late 2025, though that seems ambitious.

Even though construction has already begun at KSC, all of SpaceX’s plans are a pipe dream until the company clears regulatory approvals. The needed approvals deal primarily with Environmental Impact Statements and FAA licensing.

Environmental impacts by the Starship program became the focus of several court cases against the company in Texas as they built their current launch and manufacturing facility, known as Starbase. Some environmental groups here are already vowing resistance too, though they will have a tough road to travel since this construction, unlike Texas, will be on government-owned land.F

Though Starship is still in development and has yet to complete a successful orbital flight, SpaceX still seems confident in moving forward. The company’s goal of a Florida launch in 2025 is aggressive – the Starship program is in its early stages – but SpaceX has a history of achieving daunting milestones against the odds.

“Gigabay” – A Massive Florida Starship Factory
SpaceX’s expansion centers around building a colossal new integration facility at KSC known as “Gigabay.” Gigabay is slated to be a 380-foot-tall building designed for assembling and refurbishing Starship rockets. The facility will offer about 46.5 million cubic feet of interior space (with 815,000 square feet of work area) and 24 work bays to simultaneously process Starship boosters and spacecraft.
Equipped with giant cranes (lifting up to 400 tons), Gigabay will be over ten times larger than SpaceX’s current Starship assembly building in Texas. Construction of the Florida Gigabay is already underway, with completion targeted by late 2026. SpaceX is building a similar facility in Texas in parallel, and it also plans to add a Starship manufacturing plant (a “Starfactory”) in Florida to complement Gigabay.

How it Could Happen By The End Of The Year
In the interim, SpaceX will not wait for Gigabay to be finished before launching from Florida – instead, Starship boosters and upper-stage ships will be built in Texas and shipped by barge to Florida to kickstart operations. By transporting vehicles from its Starbase site, SpaceX expects to establish a Starship fleet in Florida ahead of Gigabay’s completion, enabling faster ramp-up of launch cadence on the Space Coast.

To launch Starship from Florida, SpaceX is upgrading and building out launch infrastructure at multiple sites on the Space Coast. At KSC’s historic Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) – already used for Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon missions – SpaceX has been working on perfecting a Starship launch pad and tower since 2022. The company’s announcement said it the plan is to finish the pad by the end of 2025, so that Florida launches can begin. The pad will feature a launch mount and “catch” tower designed to recover the giant Super Heavy boosters, incorporating lessons learned from Starship’s test pads in Texas.

SpaceX is also evaluating Launch Complex 37 (SLC-37) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station as a second Florida Starship site. SLC-37, a pad with Apollo-era heritage and formerly used for ULA’s Delta IV Heavy rockets, is currently dormant and presents the company with a potential second Florida launch site for additional Starship launches. SpaceX thus far has been granted a “limited Right of Entry” to SLC-37 to conduct surveys and environmental studies. The company says they need multiple pads to meet the high flight rates required for its missions – including deploying Starship for public, private, and national security missions. Starship can also be used as a cargo/crew carrier and as orbital refueling tankers for missions to the Moon and Mars.

SpaceX executives also noted the significance of the move. “Starship is the vehicle that will enable us to become a spacefaring civilization,” said Kiko Dontchev, SpaceX’s Vice President of Launch, adding that expanding Starship production and launches in Florida is “a big step toward achieving this goal”. SpaceX expressed gratitude for support from Florida authorities as it pursues its long-term vision of making humanity multiplanetary. “We’re… expanding Starship operations into Florida, bringing production and launch capabilities to the Space Coast,” SpaceX spokesperson Christopher Gebhardt said during a company broadcast.

SpaceX will continue Starship test launches from its Starbase facility in Texas while building out Florida capabilities. If all goes to plan with testing and approvals, 2025 could mark the first-ever Starship liftoff from Florida’s Space Coast, heralding a new chapter of super-heavy-lift launches from the Sunshine State.