A view of Spacex Starbase on Saturday, May 3, 2025, near Boca Chica Beach, Texas, before an incorporation choice that would turn Starbase into an official city in Texas. | Photo credit: AP
The South Texas House of the Spacex Rocket Company of Elon Musk is on the way to becoming an official city with a galactic name: Starbase.
A Saturday vote to formally organize Starbase as a city was approved by a marginal margin by a small group of voters who live there and mostly are employees of Mr. Musk in Spacex.
Mr. Musk celebrated in a publication on its social platform X, saying that it is “now a real city!”
Starbase is the installation and launch site of the Spacex Rocket program that is under contract with the Department of Defense of Defense and NASA that hopes to send the astronauts back to the moon and someday to Mars.
Mr. Musk first raised the idea of Starbase in 2021 and the approval of the new city was almost safe. Of the 283 eligible voters in the area, it is believed that most are Starbase workers.
The electoral victory was personal for Mr. Musk. The popularity of the billionaire has decreased since it became the public face that pushes the federal work chain and the expense cuts of President Donald Trump, and the profits in his Tesla Automobile Company have collapsed.
Spacex has generally attracted broad support from local officials for their jobs and investments in the area.
But the creation of an official city of the company has also attracted critics who care that Mr. Musk’s personal control will expand on the area, with a potential authority to close a beach and a popular state park for launches.
The complementary efforts for the vote of the city include bills in the state legislature to change that county authority to the mayor and the City of the New City.
All these measures occur when Spacex is asking permission from federal authorities to increase the number of launches in southern Texas from five to 25 per year.
The city at the southern far of Texas, near the border of Mexico, is only approximately 1.5 square miles (3.9 square kilometers), crossed by some roads and mottled with air trailers and modentstury houses.
Spacex officials have said little about why they want a city of the company and did not respond to requests for comments by email.
“We need the ability to grow Starbase as a community,” wrote the general manager of Starbase Kathryn Luders to local officials in 2024 with the request to obtain the city’s problem on the ballot.
The letter said that the company already manages roads and public services, as well as “the provisions of schooling and medical care” for those who live in the property.
SPACEX officials have told legislators to grant the city authority to close the beach would optimize launch operations. Spacex Rocket is launched and motor tests, and also just move certain equipment around the launch base requires the closure of a local road and access to Boca Chica State Park and Boca Chica Beach.
Critics say that Beach’s closing authority should keep the county government, which represses a wider population that uses the beach and the park. Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino, Jr. has said that the county has worked well with Spacex and that there is no need for change.
Another proposed bill would make it several B with up to 180 days in jail, IFONE, does not meet the order to evacuate the beach.
The Environmental Justice Network of Southern Texas, which has been organized protests against the city’s vote and the problem of access to the beach, made another demonstration on Saturday that attracted the people’s box.
Josette Hinojosa, whose little daughter was building a sand castle, said she was participating to try to guarantee continuous access to a beach that her family has enjoyed for generations.
With Spacex, Hinojosa said: “Some days is closed, and some days reject you,”
Organizer Christopher Basaldú, a member of the Carrizo/Comecrudo Nation of Texas tribe, said his ancestors have been in the area, where the Rio Grande meets the Gulf.
“It’s not just important,” he said, “it’s sacred.”
Published – May 4, 2025 08:38 am isst