SpaceX South Texas Launch Site
Regional location of the proposed SpaceX Texas launch facility, from the FAA draft EIS, April 2013.
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| Location | Boca Chica Village, Cameron County, Texas |
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| Proposer | SpaceX |
| Status | Under construction |
| Type | Space launch facility |
| Cost estimate | US$100 million |
| Cost estimate (low) | US$85 million |
| Start date | September 2014 |
| Completion date | 2018 |
| Stakeholders | Texas Enterprise Fund, Spaceport Trust Fund, Cameron County Spaceport Development Corporation |
The SpaceX South Texas Launch Site is a spaceport being built at Boca Chica Village near Brownsville, Texas for the private use of Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX). Its purpose is "to provide SpaceX an exclusive launch site that would allow the company to accommodate its launch manifest and meet tight launch windows." The launch site is intended to support launches of the SpaceX Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launch vehicles as well as "a variety of reusable suborbital launch vehicles." SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has also indicated that he expects "commercial astronauts, private astronauts, to be departing from South Texas," and he foresees launching spacecraft to Mars from there.
During 2012 through mid-2014, SpaceX was considering seven potential locations around the United States for the new commercial launch pad. For much of this period, a parcel of land adjacent to Boca Chica Beach near Brownsville, Texas was the leading candidate location, during an extended period while the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) conducted an extensive environmental assessment on the use of the Texas location as a launch site. Also during this period, SpaceX began acquiring land in the area, purchasing approximately 41 acres (17 ha) and leasing 57 acres (23 ha) by July 2014.
SpaceX announced on 4 August 2014, that they had selected the location near Brownsville as the location for the new non-governmental launch site, after the final environmental assessment completed and environmental agreements were in place by early July 2014.
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