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SpaceX Reveals Florida Starship Pad in First Close-Up
A new close-up shows SpaceX’s fast-growing Starship launch tower in Florida as the company builds out multiple launch sites and two Gigabays.
Image: iXBT
A high-quality close-up of SpaceX’s new Starship launch infrastructure in Florida has appeared online for the first time, showing the rapidly rising service tower under construction at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. A Tesla Cybertruck is also visible at the base of the structure.
SpaceX is developing several facilities at once on the US Space Coast. Work is underway at Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center and at SLC-37 on Cape Canaveral. At the same time, the company is building two huge Gigabay production and assembly complexes: one at Starbase, Texas, and the other in Florida.
Each Gigabay is expected to become one of the largest buildings in the world and is designed to support assembly of up to 1,000 Starship vehicles per year. Both facilities are planned to open by the end of 2026, part of SpaceX’s push to sharply increase rocket production for Mars missions.
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The new infrastructure would let SpaceX launch Starship from multiple pads, significantly increasing flight cadence. That would complement the existing Starbase site in Texas while supporting a growing number of commercial missions and launches tied to NASA programs.
As previously reported, construction has recently accelerated at SpaceX’s new Starship launch site at Kennedy Space Center. The update comes just after SpaceX had to cancel the 13th Starship test flight during its launch window on July 16, 2026, in Texas.
Frontier Editor
Dan is our resident futurist, covering electric mobility, space exploration, and the smart home. He's interested in atoms just as much as bits. Whether it's a new battery chemistry, a reusable rocket, or a protocol that finally makes IoT devices talk to each other, Dan breaks down the engineering that pushes humanity forward.
via iXBT
