Gov. Jeff Landry speaks at Magdalen Place in Abbeville during an event to announce the SpaceX project in Vermilion Parish on Aug. 25, 2026. (Photo by Wes Muller/Louisiana Illuminator)
This report was originally published by The Current, a nonprofit news organization serving Lafayette and South Louisiana.
Last month, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry stepped up to a crowd of hundreds in an event hall in Abbeville, confirming what had long been rumored to be true: a SpaceX launch site is coming to South Louisiana.
“Too often, Louisiana was left with the scars while others enjoyed the profits,” he said, in what sounded like a jab at the long-dominant oil and gas industry he once vigorously and unquestioningly supported. “Today, what Elon Musk and his team is offering Louisiana is different. They are offering us a permanent future and lasting prosperity.”
And SpaceX, in turn, should prepare to be amazed, Landry added. “They will bear testament to the greatest work ethic on earth.”
State and local officials have been willing to make some major concessions to attract that historic investment, including a nearly $24 billion tax break, on the promise that it will bring with it 3,000 direct jobs and nearly 10,000 “indirect” new jobs, according to Louisiana Economic Development.
What exactly those jobs will be remains unclear. As of now, the company is looking for a civil engineer, senior construction and government affairs managers, and a real estate attorney. But with so little information available on Louisiana Starbase’s workforce needs and construction slated to start next year, is Acadiana prepared to take advantage of the opportunity?
Since the announcement, Acadiana’s educational and economic development organizations have sought to re-orient their workforce training programs to meet the future demands of the project.
But they’ve mostly been flying blind.
While Vermilion Parish School District officials have reportedly been in conversation with SpaceX, Lafayette institutions say they have not had those same conversations.
“It’s not atypical” that SpaceX has not yet reached out to workforce organizations in Acadiana, says Mandi Mitchell, president and CEO of the Lafayette Economic Development Authority. “Especially a project of this magnitude, with so many moving parts — with site readiness, road infrastructure, securing the foundation for the launch pads that are going to be constructed, securing their local leadership, securing the vendor and supplier network and and establishing a rapport with the local community that they will call home to ground zero of their facility. Those are the sorts of things that are of a priority right now.”
The Lafayette Economic Development Authority has not been in direct communication with SpaceX, either — but Mitchell is confident the project will be a boon. “From a workforce development perspective, the SpaceX project is going to be a gold mine,” she says.
The conversations with SpaceX, Mitchell says, are instead being handled by Louisiana Economic Development. “They’re in the driver’s seat on this, in conversation with the company, documenting every job that they intend to hire: job descriptions, skills required. And our hiring institutions in this area and in surrounding areas will be provided the resources they need to expand programs and to pivot.”
“I’m talking welders, fabricators, machinists, technicians, communications, and then you go up the line to multiple different facets of engineering: mechanical, electrical, aerospace, aeronautical, structural engineering, etc,” — to hear Mitchell tell it, the possibilities are practically endless.
But promised jobs are one thing; having a local workforce that is trained and ready to step into those jobs is another.
“We have to produce more of these highly skilled, highly talented people,” Mitchell says. That includes encouraging students at UL Lafayette and other local colleges to stay in Lafayette.
SpaceX has posted its first four job openings for the launch site. All four positions are currently based at the company’s Starbase in Brownsville, Texas, but require eventual relocation to Louisiana.
Mitchell tells The Current that she has spoken with her Brownsville counterpart. There, SpaceX’s arrival in 2014 has been transformative, in job growth but also in strains on housing stock, infrastructure and concerns about SpaceX using strong-arm tactics to claim more access to land.
Eight-four percent of the jobs at the Brownsville campus, Mitchell says, are local – “within a 70-mile radius of the facility.” But that number doesn’t distinguish between locals and people who moved to Brownsville for the job.
“We live in a free market society,” Mitchell says. “I don’t think you can guarantee anybody jobs.” Even though Lafayette has a long industrial history that has well-positioned its workforce, she says, “the reality is there will be new people moving in. And, quite frankly, we need new people moving into the area and becoming permanent residents of Lafayette and of Acadiana.”
In the absence of more detailed information, Acadiana institutions are moving ahead with their existing training programs — and waiting for word from SpaceX.
“We haven’t gotten really that specific information, either,” says Maggi Bienvenu, director of business education connections at OneAcadiana, the economic development organization for Acadiana that recently launched its own “SpaceX in Acadiana” website.
One priority for OneAcadiana, Bienvenu says, is to encourage young local students to consider training for new manufacturing jobs. Part of that is addressing the stigma that manufacturing jobs typically carry. “How do we help students see the jobs that we have in our area as opportunities and start that early enough that they’re putting themselves into the pathway for it?” she wonders. It’s a question that, like so many, is still awaiting an answer.
Louisiana community colleges face faculty poaching from new industry
In the absence of more detailed information, several organizations told The Current that they planned to focus on their existing workforce development curricula for students, while addressing other manufacturing workforce needs in the region.
“I know that everybody’s excited about it, but don’t forget that there’s a lot of other things that are already happening here, right? This shouldn’t necessarily overshadow other good news, other great companies,” Bienvenu says. “And so, while yes, there is a lot of excitement about [SpaceX], that is still a little bit outside of our purview right now.”
“The things that we’re already doing will likely be beneficial to SpaceX,” she adds. “What are we doing now for the jobs that we currently know that we need to fill?”
Lafayette groups and educational institutions directly involved in workforce training have also received little communication from SpaceX, Louisiana Economic Development or the governor’s office regarding the project.
Without more details — a breakdown of which specific manufacturing jobs will be in demand, for example — it is challenging for institutions to anticipate future needs, their leaders say. Still, educational leaders are careful not to openly criticize the project or its supporters, lest it could shut them out from future opportunities.
“As specific workforce needs become clearer, we stand ready to work with industry and economic development partners to identify training needs, build additional pathways where needed, and help connect local people with new career opportunities,” South Louisiana Community College Chancellor Vincent June told The Current in a written statement.
The W.D. & Mary Baker Smith Career Center, part of the Lafayette Parish School System, already has a strong focus on welding and auto paint and body, says Holly Boffy, the school’s principal. “What you’ll find with the trades is that a lot of the skills are transferable.”
As the Career Center prepares to move to the former Comeaux High School site, Boffy says the move opens opportunities to bring in new training programs for students.
Boffy says she has been looking at similar large-scale manufacturing projects to understand how local communities adapted. She points out that, while higher-salary managerial jobs may entice workers to relocate, the comparatively lower pay of trade jobs means they are more likely to go to those already local to the area.
“What I’m looking for is to talk to someone at SpaceX to help us understand what other entry-level jobs will be available to students,” she says. “So that as we build a new career center, we can build it in.”
Given the demands of implementing a new school curriculum and recruiting students, she says, planning for new programs needs to begin as soon as possible.
“It really is early in their project and I understand that it’s not the top priority for the corporation just yet,” she emphasizes. “But the sooner we know, the more prepared we’ll have our students.”
Boffy says she has also been looking to the SpaceX location in Brownsville for a comparison. Officials there say that preparation and collaboration has been key in taking advantage of new employment opportunities brought in by SpaceX.
“It was a challenge for us, but the Rio Grande Valley, our region, really has worked together with our institutions of higher education … to really build up those pipelines,” says Paco Sanchez, CEO of the Rio Grande Valley Partnership, which promotes economic development around the region.
The manufacturing jobs at SpaceX, he says, require specialized training that exceeds typical manufacturing jobs.
“It’s not just a traditional welder, you know, it’s aerospace – very technical welding,” he says. “A lot of our local colleges, they pivoted to that need after talking to industry.”
The most significant factor in preparing for SpaceX in Brownsville, he says, has been collaboration across different sectors. “It’s really our region coming together to tackle these issues as one. That was how we were able to move forward in our growth here in the Rio Grande Valley.”
SpaceX did not respond to a request from The Current for comment.
