Where does the world's largest rocket launch from?

SpaceX chose this corner of the Gulf of Mexico in 2014, back when it was still thinking of Falcon 9, and later turned it into the factory and test site for Starship. The pad faces the sea, with the mouth of the Rio Grande to the south and South Padre Island to the north. The first integrated flight, on April 20, 2023, lifted off from orbital launch pad A, topped by a tower about 146 m tall with mechanical arms used to stack the stages and, since October 2024, to catch the booster on its return. A second pad, B, has been built alongside the first to increase launch cadence.

The location offers low latitude, open ocean to the east where debris falls, and land of its own where SpaceX can manufacture and launch without sharing the pad with anyone. The price is proximity to the Boca Chica beaches and the natural refuge surrounding them, the source of litigation and FAA environmental reviews with every expansion of the launch license.

At Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center, the Apollo 11 pad that SpaceX leases from NASA, a twin tower for Starship is going up. From there will launch the missions that require Space Coast infrastructure, such as orbital refueling flights and the Artemis lunar lander. SpaceX has also proposed using Complex 37 at Cape Canaveral, occupied by Delta IV until 2024. When they enter service depends on ongoing environmental reviews (as of May 2026).