Gigabay is a new, very large facility being built by SpaceX which will help it to massively upscale its Starship production.
Located next to its HangarX location at NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre, the facility is designed to handle very large rockets – most notably Starship and Super Heavy vehicles up to 81 metres (266 feet) tall.
The Gigabay itself will stand at 380 feet tall and provide approximately 46.5 million cubic feet of interior processing space with 815,000 square feet of workspace – including ground level, elevated platform work areas and a work/meeting space on the top floor. There will be 24 work cells for integration and refurbishment work, along with cranes that lift up to 400 tonnes.
Gigabay will provide more than 11x the square-footage for working, 19 additional work cells, and more than twice the crane lifting capability than its Megabay facilities – currently SpaceX’s largest stacking and integration buildings.
There are plans to build another Gigabay at Starbase in Texas, close to the Starship Starfactory manufacturing facility. Both sites are currently under construction and due to be completed by the end of 2026.
The Gigabay is a key part of SpaceX’s plan to dramatically increase its Starship production with some reports claiming it could be building up to 1,000 a year.
Starship is SpaceX’s reusable rocket designed to carry payloads, satellites, and people into orbit. The system consists of two stages: the Super Heavy booster and the Starship spacecraft. The Super Heavy booster serves as the first stage, generating the thrust necessary to lift Starship off the ground using powerful Raptor engines. The second stage, also called Starship, carries cargo and passengers and is capable of operating in orbit or on other planets. Both stages are designed for full reusability, returning to Earth for refurbishment and repeated launches.
Starship can carry over 100,000kg to Low Earth Orbit and several tens of tonnes to the Moon or Mars. Standing approximately 120m tall when stacked with the Super Heavy booster, it ranks among the tallest rockets ever built. It is powered by liquid methane and liquid oxygen, which allows for potential refuelling on Mars and supports long-duration missions beyond Earth.
