Florida’s Space Coast Braces for Impact—From Elon Musk

This is hallowed ground for the U.S. space program, where NASA set the course for moon landings decades ago. But Florida’s Space Coast, as this stretch of palm trees, subdivisions and rocket pads is called, has never seen anything quite as otherworldly as Elon Musk.

Musk’s space company wants to launch Starship, the Earth’s largest and most powerful rocket, dozens of times annually from the Cape in the years ahead. The rocket from SpaceX towers nearly 400 feet at liftoff—more than the Statue of Liberty—and is at the center of NASA’s plan to return to the moon and Musk’s ambition to colonize Mars.