SpaceX To Build Starship At Massive New Gigabay Facility In Florida

The Future of Building Starship

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is taking Starship production and launch capabilities to the next level, expanding operations beyond Starbase, Texas, to the legendary Space Coast in Florida. With Starship’s development accelerating, this move will help to significantly scale up build and launch rates like never before.

As infrastructure development continues at Starbase, SpaceX is constructing a massive new integration facility called Gigabay, next to its HangarX location at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Additionally, SpaceX plans to complete the Starship launch pad at Launch Complex 39A (LC-39A) this year, pending environmental impact approvals for potential operations at both LC-39A and Space Launch Complex 37 (SLC-37) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS).

This expansion isn’t just about SpaceX—it’s about the future of humanity. Starship will be the first fully reusable, rapid-launch vehicle in history, with the ultimate goal of ferrying millions of tons of payload to Mars and building a self-sustaining city on the Red Planet to make humanity multiplanetary.

Meet Gigabay: The Spacecraft Super Factory

A new era of spaceflight demands next-level infrastructure, and SpaceX is answering with Gigabay, a towering 380-foot facility in Florida designed to supercharge Starship production. This beast of a building will offer 46.5 million cubic feet of interior processing space, featuring:

• 815,000 square feet of workspace
• 24 work cells for vehicle integration and refurbishment
• Cranes capable of lifting up to 400 U.S. tons
• Enough room to support Starship and Super Heavy vehicles up to 266 feet tall

Compared to SpaceX’s Megabay facilties in Texas, Gigabay will offer 11 times the workspace, 19 additional work cells, and double the crane lifting capacity—a game-changer for Starship’s rapid production cycle.

Construction is already underway, with the facility expected to be operational by the end of 2026. Not stopping there, SpaceX is also building another Gigabay at Starbase, Texas, ensuring production capacity keeps pace with their ambitious launch goals.

Starship Launches From the Space Coast? It’s Happening.

To prepare for Starship’s Florida launches, SpaceX is building a launch and catch site at LC-39A, incorporating lessons learned from the first two Starship pads at Starbase. This high-tech facility will include a massive deflector system for cooling and sound suppression during launches, similar to the setup at the upcoming second Starbase launch pad.

Pending environmental approvals, SpaceX is targeting late 2025 for Starship’s first Florida launch from LC-39A. But that’s just the start. SpaceX is also eyeing SLC-37 at CCSFS to handle the increased launch frequency necessary for missions to Mars, lunar exploration, and on-orbit refueling operations.

“SLC-37 was built in the late 1950s and early 1960s. NASA used the pad from 1964 to 1968 for testing of the Saturn I and Saturn IB rockets as part of the Apollo program. From 2002 to 2024, the pad was used for the Delta IV rocket.”

With these expansion plans, SpaceX is setting the stage for a high-volume Starship launch pipeline, bringing us closer to the dream of interplanetary travel. Stay tuned—big things are coming to the Space Coast!