In the grand tradition of building ridiculously large factories for ambitious goals, SpaceX is constructing a new $250 million facility at its Starbase site in South Texas, appropriately dubbed the “GigaBay”. According to company filings, the 700,000-square-foot complex is designed to massively accelerate the manufacturing, integration, and refurbishment of Starship rockets, the vehicles Elon Musk intends to use to send autonomous robots—and eventually humans—to Mars.
The stated production target for the GigaBay is, in typical Muskian fashion, an almost unbelievable “up to 1,000 rockets per year”. While that number sounds more aspirational than practical, it signals a clear intent to shift rocket production from a bespoke craft to an automotive-style assembly line. Construction is already underway, with a completion date targeted for December 2026. The facility will reportedly be one of the world’s largest industrial structures, featuring 24 work cells and cranes capable of lifting 400 tons.
Why is this important?
The GigaBay represents a fundamental shift in the economics and logistics of space travel. Historically, rockets have been low-volume, high-cost machines. By applying the “gigafactory” mass-production model to rocketry, SpaceX aims to create a fleet of reusable Starships large enough to establish a self-sustaining city on another planet. This isn’t just about building more rockets; it’s about industrializing interplanetary transport. If successful, it would make the prospect of a multi-planetary humanity less of a science-fiction trope and more of a logistical challenge waiting to be solved by an absurdly large factory in Texas.
