Starship’s Florida presence will be much larger than in Starbase

SpaceX hasn’t given up its hope to launch Starship from Kennedy Space Center, and things are starting to pick back up over on the Space Coast. If you thought Starbase was impressive, SpaceX’s Florida version will dwarf it by comparison.

Work over the last handful of months has been underway on what SpaceX is calling its “Phase 1” of expansion at its Roberts Road Facility at Kennedy Space Center. We have already discussed that SpaceX is working on building a “GigaBay” for Starship rocket assembly; this will be part of that Phase 1 project.

The “North Expansion,” as it’s called, is adjacent to SpaceX’s Falcon 9 processing facility. This is the main hub of all but the actual launches for SpaceX at both Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The North Expansion is roughly 100 acres in total size, roughly the same size as all of SpaceX’s Starbase land, both owned and leased, including the launch site. And this 100 acres will just be for rocket production, assembly, and future refurbishment; the launch pads will be elsewhere.

New aerial photos taken by NASASpaceFlight show that progress is being made in clearing the land for Phase 1. We don’t know what will all be built on this plot of land, except that we do know this is the future home for GigaBay. The land where GigaBay will be built has been a main focus of clearing and flattening. According to building permits, the expected timeframe for GigaBay’s construction will be roughly a year and a half.

This is only half of the North Expansion’s plan. Phase 2 is expected to feature a 1.5 million square foot facility for vehicle processing and manufacturing. This is likely referring to something like Starfactory over at Starbase. However, Starfactory is only about one million square feet in size, making this new facility even bigger.

Florida is supposed to be the home of Starship’s launches, at least for its role as NASA’s Human Landing System. It will likely be the home of the bulk of Starship’s launches, with Starbase turning into a research and development facility as SpaceX continues to develop new systems.

LC-39A Starship launch mount assembly begins

Speaking of launches, NASASpaceFlight also captured the signs of the start of the next Starship launch mount being built. SpaceX set up a production tent, similar to what they used at the start of Starbase operations, behind Hanger X. Inside this tent, you can see all the beginnings of a similar launch mount that we’ll see on Launch Pad B at Starbase.

The square launch mount will have three layers, and for right now, we only see parts for the first two layers in various stages of assembly.

This similar launch mount design also means that LC-39A’s Starship launch pad, which already has the tower and catch arms installed, will see similar modifications to what Starbase’s Pad B has. This might include a flame trench to divert the rocket’s exhaust away from any important ground equipment.

Unless SpaceX plans to use any temporary structures for Starship rocket production, given the GigaBay’s timeline for being built and the time needed to clear the land for Phase 2, we might not see any Florida Starship launches for quite some time, at least this year.