SPACEX: According to local reports, the final stages of a deal are in place for SpaceX to build the new spaceport on Pecan Island in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, and Governor Jeff Landry is expected to make an announcement this month.
— S.E. Robinson, Jr. (@SERobinsonJr) August 2, 2026
SpaceX would gain control of the land… pic.twitter.com/kaKKJHhDZ3
[Tuesday-morning update]
We now have a rough timetable on the schedule.
[Bumped]
“Vermilion Sands is a collection of science fiction short stories by British writer J. G. Ballard, first published in 1971. All the stories are set in an imaginary vacation resort called Vermilion Sands which suggests, among other places, Palm Springs in southern California. The characters are generally the wealthy and disaffected, or people who make a living off them, as well as parasites of various kinds.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermilion_Sands
Faster Please.
7 or more Starship pads, each designed for daily or even hourly use…
That is a hint of the cadence they are targeting.
This is off topic, but I just wanted to note that it is becoming increasingly difficult to access this site. On Android, you have to either go to categories or access the desktop version to see new postings. On Linux, it is becoming extremely difficult to get Brave or Chrome to allow http sites, even it you allow it in settings. One normally just gets a “web server operating normally” message. So far Firefox is the last reliable holdout. What are the hurdles to get https running?
I have no problems with Brave on Linux
Some work, others don’t. This has become increasingly difficult as distros are updated. I began seeing it more with Noble Nimrod, and shudder to think when the next LTS Resolute Racoon gets to the upgrade stage. There are also issues as to whether you run a deb or snap version. All of these headaches would disappear with https, which is now the expected standard.
No problem with Vivaldi on Android.
Are you getting the home mobile page? Does it have any posts more recent than mid June? I can get recent posts using the Samsung browser only if I get the site to switch to desktop version, or hunt through the categories.
I don’t know, I’d have to ask my web hosting service. I imagine it’s just money.
Still no issues running Brave 1.93.129 (yeah, I switched back) on Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish (yeah, also becoming arcane, but it works for what I need).
Jammy’s getting a bit long in the tooth. I’ve got mostly Nimrod on desktops and laptops, with Racoon on one laptop that was struggling with Nimrod for audio and wifi issues. I suspect that newer security features are creeping in, making Brave less tolerant. BTW, I have similar issues with not only Chrome but Opera as well. Any Chrome fork seems to be twitchy.
Is there a Linux version of Opera? I’m running that on Windows 10 with no problems. I get a “Not secure” notice next to the URL when I’m here, but no restrictions or odd behavior..
Ooops. Should have read further in the thread.
On Android, it works fine on Opera, which is the superior mobile browser thanks to text wrapping and native ad blocking.
I use Android too. Try turning your phone sideways.
https://arstechnica.com/space/2026/08/spacex-is-set-to-acquire-130000-acres-of-marshland-in-southern-louisiana/?comments-page=1#comments
Thanks. I feel as if I poured raw sewage over my head and then threw myself into a raging dumpster fire. I’d say the Arse Technica commenters are mostly looney tunea, but the Looney Tunes cartoons were funny. Those whatever-they-ares make feel like I need a shower.
Yes, 90 percent of the commenters are reality-detached to one extent or another. The ones who know what they are doing quickly get downvoted into obscurity.
The downvotes are either spot-on or even too loony for the radical left that constitutes the cartilaginous linguini-spined radical leftist core of the comments section.
Same. I looked at the first two pages of comments. Looney tunes and pig ignorant doesn’t even begin to cover it, along with severe Musk Derangent Syndrome.
Yowzah!
I read Ars mainly for Berger’s and Clark’s space stuff – comments excluded. Once in awhile there will be a good archaeology/paleontology piece and some of Jeremy Hsu’s stuff is also readable. The rest of their staffers are pretty much uniformly woke Pavlovian attack dogs.
The one benefit of that is that it makes the site a quick read.
They ruined the comments when they went to the downvote system, ran off 98 percent of the quality.
Yes. I used to see some familiar names over there, but not for the last three or so years. Some of them probably got banned for life, like me (called Beth Mole – correctly – a liar) and the rest simply tired of trying to talk sense to people who are not sensible.
I’m always delighted to see other people refer to them as Arse Technica.
Berger is where he wants to be, among friends. Sad but true.
Berger isn’t a woke loon, just a pre-woke conventional Democrat who doesn’t really understand Elon’s latter-day politics. He’s too well-acquainted with Musk to be prey to casual MDS. Perhaps the on-going takeover of the Democratic Party by doctrinaire Marxists will yield a Road to Damascus moment for Berger at some point. One can hope.
He’s a journalist, seems most of them are vulnerable to leftism.
Rocket Dreams by Christian Davonport struck me similarly – great content, with occasional diversions into unnecessary lefty criticism of Elon, Trump, etc.
Most of them are not only vulnerable, they might as well be considered part of the Borg Collective. Berger, as I say, is a pretty typical pre-woke Democrat who just hasn’t figured out yet that the Democrats can no longer even pretend to be a “good guys” party. Inertia is at least as consequential a force in politics as it is in physical reality.
Related: “The U.S. Space Force has selected Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory to serve as technical direction agent for the Space Force’s Space-Based Interceptor program.
In support of Golden Dome for America, the program is developing a proliferated Low-Earth Orbit constellation of interceptors capable of boost, midcourse and glide phase engagements”
https://www.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4561099/space-force-selects-technical-direction-agent-for-sbi-program/
I would have preferred to see SpaceX in this role, but APL is a good – and conflict-of-interest-free – choice. So long as Space Force is ruthless in vetting the APL personnel involved to filter out any academic treasonous weasel types, this decision should avoid a lot of gratuitous static that otherwise would have accompanied a SpaceX selection as, in essence, project systems integrator.
As with everything related to Golden Dome, faster please.
Is this a step in maximizing launch payloads? Launch from Starbase and land boosters in Louisiana, relaunch and land in Florida? Would this increase total mass to orbit?