Betty Cormier tended the counter Tuesday at the Pecan Island Food Store, a quiet storefront and gas station on state highway 82 in the southern reaches of Vermillion Parish.
Surrounded by marshland, wildlife preserves and hunting and fishing camps, it’s one of the only places to get food, fuel and supplies for miles around. But she’s heard that that may not be the case for much longer.
SpaceX, billionaire Elon Musk’s commercial aerospace company, is in talks with the state of Louisiana over a 130,000-acre tract of land nearby that sources say the company wants for launching rockets. A spaceport would reshape this remote community on Louisiana’s southwestern coast, bringing potentially thousands of jobs but also construction, noise and other changes. Having heard little from local and state leaders, Cormier and some of her neighbors are wary.
The sun rises behind SpaceX’s mega rocket Starship as it is prepared for a test flight from Starbase, Texas, Friday, July 24, 2026.
“Our store is not equipped to handle 1,500 extra people,” she said. “There’s a lot of concern about whether we can adapt.”
In interviews, parish officials have said they are enthusiastic about the opportunities SpaceX might bring to a remote section of Louisiana’s coast, as are some landowners nearby. At the same time, others in Vermilion, which has a population of about 60,000 people, are more skeptical. Around 5,000 people live in the remote area around Pecan Island where sources have told The Times-Picayune and The Advocate that SpaceX plans to build a launch site.
For months, many in Vermillion have heard the rumors of a major project involving a space company, but there’s been little information shared so far from public officials. Gov. Jeff Landry’s office has declined to comment about any potential launch site in Vermilion Parish. The company has declined to comment, but referred to a post on X that states that the company needs more launch sites and that included a map of the area around Pecan Island.
Wayne Miller talks about the possibility of a SpaceX spaceport coming to the coastal marshland near his home Tuesday, August 4, 2026, in Pecan Island, La.
Vermillion Parish President Chad Vallo said he expects to hear from state officials at some point and he said he’s excited for the jobs and potential economic growth. His office is in the process of reaching out to elected officials in Texas near SpaceX’s Starbase, the company’s flagship launch site, to find out about the impacts of the spaceport there.
“If it does come to fruition it would be life changing,” said Vallo. He hopes that his grandson, who currently serves in the U.S. Navy, will be able to return to the area and get a job with SpaceX. “He could possibly be home and wouldn’t have to go find a job somewhere else.”
Vallo said that to the extent he has heard from constituents, they support the project. Still, in interviews Tuesday, and during an online call organized Monday night by a local opponent of any space development, some residents didn’t share that view. Environmental advocates are concerned about how a site devoted to space launches could impact the coastal region that’s nestled between wildlife refuges.
Wayne Miller holds a four-day-old Duroc piglet Tuesday, August 4, 2026, in Pecan Island, La. where he raises show pigs to sell to 4-H students and families across the region. Miller, like many residents, is closely watching plans for a possible SpaceX spaceport nearby.
Wayne Miller, the assistant fire chief in Pecan Island, said he’s opposed to the project, as are many people he’s heard from. He’s also concerned about the lack of information.
“The state needs to open its mouth and tell us what’s happening,” he said.
A spaceport on the Gulf
Pecan Island is a small community along a stretch of wetlands about 45 miles southwest of Lafayette. Down the road from the town, in an area called Freshwater City is a small stretch of filled-in marsh that SpaceX has indicated on social media that it may acquire for its next spaceport.
About 130,000 acres of wetlands around Pecan Island are owned by ExxonMobil, which acquired the land in 1958 when it bought Humble Oil, according to Jason Theriot, a historian and author of a book about the area. Since then, the land has been managed by an entity called the Vermilion Corporation, which oversees duck hunting there.
As part of a settlement with Exxon in lawsuits alleging that the company damaged parts of Louisiana’s fragile coastline, the state is negotiating for SpaceX to receive control of the land, either through a sale, long-term lease or other type of arrangement.
The site is potentially a Goldilocks location for Musk’s company. It’s near the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, a shipping channel that SpaceX may make use of. There’s abundant natural gas nearby, which is needed for rockets. And there are few nearby residents to complain about the sonic booms — which, near SpaceX’s launch site in Texas, have been strong enough to physically damage houses in the area.
Still, environmentalists are raising concerns about the potential impact of the project on the natural areas that surround it. The stretch of land SpaceX is looking to acquire is situated between the Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge to its west and an Audubon-owned site, the Paul J. Rainey Sanctuary, to its east. Both provide key habitat for migratory bird species.
SpaceX lat the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)
“As SpaceX considers development in Vermilion Parish, we are concerned about potential impacts to sensitive habitats, wildlife, fisheries, air quality, local livelihoods, and emergency-response times when roads become congested,” said Alyssa Portaro, the executive director of the Habitat Recovery Project, a Vinton-based environmental group.
She called for conducting environmental studies of the area to establish baseline data against which the impacts of the project can be measured.
‘We all know something’s happening’
SpaceX’s Texas launch site has affected the environment there. After one of the landmark launches of Musk’s Starship rocket in 2023, conservationists canvassed the landscape for signs of environmental damage. The impact was clear. Yellow egg yolk stained the ground where birds’ nests had been the day before, according to The New York Times. None of the nine nests that conservationists had been monitoring survived the launch intact.
Louisiana has passed legislation aimed at reducing any liabilities for SpaceX and other companies who want to launch rockets in the state. A new law passed this spring aimed at shielding aerospace companies from lawsuits over the impacts of any potential launch site, barring nuisance lawsuits from local governments or residents, as well as other legislation meant to lure commercial spaceflight companies to the state.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, left, shakes hands with Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk after Musk speaks on stage at a Trump campaign event on Oct. 5, 2024.
Pierre Miller, 64, an attorney who lives in New Orleans and whose family owns around 10,000 acres in coastal Vermilion, said he was open to the idea of SpaceX developing in the area. He said the area never recovered from Hurricane Rita in 2005 and could use an economic shot in the arm.
“I’m curious about it and excited about the possibilities,” he said. “I don’t know why it can’t be compatible with (existing recreational uses). They will need a lot of empty space buffer.”
Regardless of their views on the prospect of a space launch site, residents and landowners said they were largely just seeking more information on what might be coming. And with a lack of official information, questions have spread. A few weeks ago, large white Xs appeared on a number of streets in the area. During a call Monday evening organized by a local opponent of the project, the markings became a topic of speculation.
“We all know something’s happening,” one Pecan Island resident said of the Xs, which brought guesses that they were visible from satellites. Others guessed that they were simply marking roads that would need to be widened.
A white ÒXÓ is seen painted on Hwy. 3147 Tuesday, August 4, 2026, near Pecan Island, La. The exact purpose of the marking and others like it along Hwy. 3147 and Hwy. 82 is unclear, but some locals speculate they may be tied to surveying for the proposed SpaceX spaceport site.
Warren Winch, 79, a Pecan Island native who has given airboat tours of the region, was focused less on what might be coming that what might no longer exist in the area if SpaceX arrives.
“If they put it where they say they are, at least I’ll have a nice view of the launches,” said Winch. “What I worry about are my kids who raise cattle for a living and other people who do shrimping and crabbing to survive. Most of them don’t want it and I can only imagine what it’s going to look like for them.”
