Buy the land. Achieve reliability that makes flyover a lesser concern. No one thinks twice about a 737. If you fail then sell the land for a profit.

Gulf states are going to end up being the global center for space.

Austin Texas - Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is looking in Williamson County, northeast of Austin, for land to build a 1.3 million-square-foot manufacturing and research complex. The project would create more than 2,000 jobs near Hutto, Texas. https://t.co/n5yNz51Ji2

— George Kiefer (@GeorgeKiefer) May 13, 2026

hph6203 said:

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Buy the land. Achieve reliability that makes flyover a lesser concern. No one thinks twice about a 737. If you fail then sell the land for a profit.

Gulf states are going to end up being the global center for space.

Austin Texas - Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin is looking in Williamson County, northeast of Austin, for land to build a 1.3 million-square-foot manufacturing and research complex. The project would create more than 2,000 jobs near Hutto, Texas. https://t.co/n5yNz51Ji2

— George Kiefer (@GeorgeKiefer) May 13, 2026

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Looks like Central Texas is really benefiting.

nortex97 said:

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So, umm, maybe I am just being obtuse about this, but starship launches from Louisiana??

SpaceX is considering several locations domestically and internationally to build the world’s most advanced spaceports! https://t.co/QCXwztAjr2

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2026

That seems pretty crazy to me, and would require significant overflight of populated areas of Texas as well for upper stage re-entries.

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I believe the plan for the LA location is to be a place where they BUILT but did not launch ships and boosters. The advantage of that location is it has access to the intercoastal waterway, and SpaceX would have to transport said ships and boosters on barges because they are two large to move otherwise. From that location they can get to their (current) launch sites in both Texas and Florida, via the intercoastal waterway.

Starship should fly themselves from the factory to their launch site.

SpaceX hasn't even directly acknowledged that they are looking at that particular site, much less what they'd do there. The rumor, though credible, came from a local real estate broker's own analysis.

I think those SpaceX/Elon tweets are meant to say "We're looking at a lot of things. Don't bet YOUR farm on any particular one to pan out for any particular purpose."

nortex97 said:

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I'm referencing return/landing trajectories for the upper stage. Not many great options there to get to sea level on the Louisiana coast.

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I am guessing that this site would primarily be a polar sun-synchronous orbital trajectory launching south. My understanding is that this is the intended orbit of the in-orbit data centers projects. This maximizes the solar power/radiant emission cooling efficiency. Starship variants are likely going to be deployable as data center modules with no intent on return to the Pelican Island site. If they needed to return a ship from this orbit there is no reason they couldn't land on a drone ship and sail it back to site.

That's not consistent with the reusable economics of Starship and SpaceX's design renders show those satellites as a folded pez deployable style like oversized Starlink satellites.

terafab.ai

Decay said:

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nortex97 said:

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I'm referencing return/landing trajectories for the upper stage. Not many great options there to get to sea level on the Louisiana coast.

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Ah gotcha. Well maybe it's like commercial air travel. Once it's proven enough you're willing to make some exceptions?

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I think this is the bigger point about future overflights of populated areas. No one wanted to stand at either end of the runway when the first commercial jet made its first test flight landing. Now we've 767s clipping highway traffic on landing approach and it's an "oops, we'll look into how that happened" situation, not a "ground all related airframes" situation.

Ok, that would make sense too I guess. Above my pay grade. I just figure the re-entries near Houston/central Texas and associated sonic booms for 'normal' re-entries would be problematic, but I depend on people smarter than me to figure this stuff out.

Posted by CS Councilman Yancy on the Aggieland Board.

I agree. Starship aims to make mass to orbit cheap. So it's likely the data center components will be deployable payload with returning ships. There are two solutions to upper stage reentry. One is drone ship landings but that is settling. The other is the dynamic banking which they proved in the last test flight where they were able to turn the vehicle and dramatically change its landing approach azimuth. So the path over populated areas can be manipulated some. I don't see too much issue with them bringing the ship in over the Atchafalaya basin on the way to pelican island. Polar orbit would have a somewhat western trajectory anyway so they may not have to do much banking by bringing it in over 'de swamp'.

A wet sunrise at Starbase, as teams performed a full test of the deluge system including the OLM top deck and the flame trench at Pad 2. Just another in a long line of tests to make sure all systems are ready for flight 12, NET May 19th.@NASASpaceflight | https://t.co/wTIGOIV9NO pic.twitter.com/RL2HCJtC5y

— Elisar Priel (@ENNEPS) May 14, 2026

Up close look at Starship 39 rolling back to Starbase Massey's test site tonight for additional testing ahead of Starship test flight 12.

5/15/26 pic.twitter.com/kjhGsrmidp

— Starship Gazer (@StarshipGazer) May 15, 2026

Upper stage back to Masseys; cryo or static fire? Would guess the latter if they wound up swapping an engine.

Why is there a 12 hour beach closure on Sunday? But no road delay posted?

Dude Pad 2’s deluge system is WILD to see in person!! Video from just a few mins ago.https://t.co/wIef8kFcSP pic.twitter.com/g8fp7PYNsF

— Max Evans (@_MaxQ_) May 15, 2026

Pretty cool.

STARSHIP FLIGHT 12: Ship 39 is at the Massey's Test Site, and Massey Way (the road) is closed.

It looks like @SpaceX is attempting testing today, maybe (probably) some sort of engine test. https://t.co/bV4rzAvoAG pic.twitter.com/XK5Dx7iKuW

— Ryan Caton (@dpoddolphinpro) May 15, 2026

Another successful Falcon 9 launch (supplies to the ISS) and return of stage 1.

Appears like the plan is to transport S39 back to the production site and B19 to the pad, both in the 12-8am CDT window. pic.twitter.com/YVmCOzxdfL

— TankWatchers (@WatchersTank) May 16, 2026

STARSHIP FLIGHT 12 UPDATE! 🚨
After an unknown test at Massey and an overnight rollout, Ship 39 has officially arrived at the production site to load the Starlink simulators. We are T-3 days away from the very first Starship V3 flight!

📸@NASASpaceflight pic.twitter.com/LDfCehtcyd

— TankWatchers (@WatchersTank) May 16, 2026

More test tiles than I had noticed.

normaleagle05 said:

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Why is there a 12 hour beach closure on Sunday? But no road delay posted?

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It is thought they are doing another WDR considering the size of the beach closure.

Elon about to get even richer!

NEWS: SpaceX holders approved a 5-for-1 stock split ahead of the company's expected IPO, bringing the share price from $527 down to ~$105.

SpaceX is expected to begin trading on Nasdaq under $SPCX on June 12. pic.twitter.com/6kzfdkVhjH

— Muskonomy (@muskonomy) May 16, 2026

As he should, he's doing things that others can't do at his scale and cost

Hold that tiger.

SpaceX is going to make a lot of us a lot of money.

PJYoung said:

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normaleagle05 said:

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Why is there a 12 hour beach closure on Sunday? But no road delay posted?

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It is thought they are doing another WDR considering the size of the beach closure.

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STARSHIP FLIGHT 12: The Beach Closure for tomorrow has been removed, and the Monday 06:00 - 22:00 CDT / 11:00 - 03:00 UTC closure has been upgraded from Backup to Primary.

This could indicate that a potential second Wet Dress Rehearsal will now be taking place on Monday. https://t.co/AWfqShgzq4

— Ryan Caton (@dpoddolphinpro) May 16, 2026

How many halts in trading will occur in the first day or two?

I've been on the wrong side on this one before, about 15 years ago at a startup. Same deal right before we went public -- 3:1 stock pplit, dilutes all Common shares but typically doesn't impact the Preferred shares that the early investors and founders hold.

RED AG 98 said:

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I've been on the wrong side on this one before, about 15 years ago at a startup. Same deal right before we went public -- 3:1 stock pplit, dilutes all Common shares but typically doesn't impact the Preferred shares that the early investors and founders hold.

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They aren't printing new shares. They're splitting them so those with 1 share now have 3 shares. Nobody is getting diluted.

lb3 said:

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RED AG 98 said:

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I've been on the wrong side on this one before, about 15 years ago at a startup. Same deal right before we went public -- 3:1 stock pplit, dilutes all Common shares but typically doesn't impact the Preferred shares that the early investors and founders hold.

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They aren't printing new shares. They're splitting them so those with 1 share now have 3 shares. Nobody is getting diluted.

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We'll see. I guess if you're on the inside you would know. We definitely did...

From everything I've read this is more of a liquidity event than it is a typical public offering.

They're intending to raise $80 billion. How that's distributed across different shareholder tiers matters. The end game for Musk is almost certainly to absorb Tesla into SoaceX so he can rectify the fact his shares in Tesla lack the voting power that he wants, but his ownership in SpaceX does/will.

Likely the largest market cap company in the world within 3 years depending on when that acquisition occurs.

lb3 said:

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RED AG 98 said:

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I've been on the wrong side on this one before, about 15 years ago at a startup. Same deal right before we went public -- 3:1 stock pplit, dilutes all Common shares but typically doesn't impact the Preferred shares that the early investors and founders hold.

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They aren't printing new shares. They're splitting them so those with 1 share now have 3 shares. Nobody is getting diluted.

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Pretty sure they're issuing a bunch of new shares and those have been bid and guaranteed by select institutional firms that brought the money to the table. This 5:1 split is just to increase liquidity once all of those shares hit the markets. We (or at least I) also don't know what specific preferred class shares will remain and which ones will convert at similar or other ratios. It's possible that very early investors will see their preferred shares converted at much much higher ratios.

Another question I have is the impact of this IPO on the broader markets. Initially will it bring a whole host of fresh and new cash/capitol to the market or will we see a broader market sell in the days leading up to the IPO as SpaceX buyers free up the cash they need to fulfill their purchase obligations?

If new shares are being issued. Then everyone without a friend on the board gets screwed.

I doubt we see a big market sell off before SpX starts trading because I don't think SpX is restricting the available shares to a small fraction of the company. When they get listed on the S&P 500 6 months after the IPO, those limited shares will zoom.

The Starlink V3 loader is now in Megabay 2 for loading into Ship 39. SpaceX said they plan on ejecting 20 total, two of them are fitted with equipment that will send back images of the heat shield before reentry.

Thanks to @LabPadre for the amazing views. pic.twitter.com/gpMVxbCzc6

— ChromeKiwi (@AshleyKillip) May 17, 2026

Will be fun to see, if these work. I read these are essentially also getting dispensed by an 'all new' pez dispenser mechanism that was re-engineered almost entirely. I believe they only ever attempted/dispensed 3 dummy satellites on earlier missions (2 of them).

WDR for tomorrow was cancelled, so I am not sure if that means Tuesday launch is off the table now or not.