“Expected to start up in the first quarter of 2026, this new facility will deliver liquid oxygen, nitrogen and argon, addressing the needs of its customer’s space operations in the region,” Linde officials said in the news release. Linde added that it has been a part of the American space industry since the Apollo program in the 1960s, when it supplied liquid oxygen to NASA’s rockets.

“Space exploration is advancing rapidly, with missions growing in ambition and scale,” Linde CEO Sanjiv Lamba said.

However, it remains unclear if SpaceX — which operates a suborbital launch facility at Starbase — will be one of Linde’s industrial gas customers.