Tech billionaire Elon Musk has a vision of turning the SpaceX starbase site near Boca Chica in South Texas into a new city.
On December 11, SpaceX sent a letter to local authorities requesting action to legalize the site, the Associated Press reported. According to the company, Starbase residents submitted the petition.
This idea is not entirely new. In 2021, Musk posted on social media that he was “building a city in Starbase, Texas,” with no other context or follow-up. Boca Chica is near the U.S.-Mexico border and is where Musk said earlier this year that he planned to move SpaceX’s headquarters from Hawthorne, California.
“We need to grow Starbase as a community.”
“Continuing to grow the workforce needed to rapidly develop and manufacture Starship requires the ability to grow Starbase as a community,” Starbase general manager Kathryn Lueders said in a letter to stakeholders. That’s why we’re asking Cameron County to hold an election to incorporate Starbase as the Rio Grande Valley’s newest city. Incorporating will streamline the process needed to build the amenities needed to make this region a world-class place to live.”
Cameron County’s top elected official, Judge Eddie Treviño Jr., told The Associated Press that although there had been talk of incorporation in 2021, this is the first time a formal petition has been filed. .
“Our legal and election authorities will review the petition to ensure it meets all statutory requirements, and then we will work from there,” he said.
About the Starbase site
More than 3,500 full-time SpaceX employees and contractors work at the Texas Starbase site, according to Trevino data. The 2024 Economic Impact Report shows more than 3,000 jobs were created on site.
This is the main location where SpaceX builds, tests and launches its Starship moon and Mars rockets and related systems, Bloomberg reports. The report added that a large warehouse called the “Star Factory” has been built in place of the site’s production tents.
SpaceX did not respond to inquiries, Bloomberg reported.
(With information from AP and Bloomberg)
