Elon Musk wants SpaceX’s South Texas Starbase facility to expand into its own, legally demarcated city. The billionaire and incoming Trump administration advisor announced the new municipal plans on December 12th on his social media platform, X. Although Musk claimed “SpaceX HQ will now officially be in the city of Starbase, Texas,” the letter of intent is only a petition to schedule the local election required for building a new town close to the Mexican border near Boca Chica Beach.
SpaceX HQ will now officially be in the city of Starbase, Texas! https://t.co/zpN4t3mJQT
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December
13, 2024
Starbase is currently the primary facility used to advance SpaceX’s Starship project, which aims to build the world’s largest rocket capable of repeated human transport missions to the Moon and Mars. Early, uncrewed iterations of Starship have launched six times so far—four partial or fully successful, and two failures. Its most recent launches included relanding and recovering the spacecraft’s Super Heavy first stage booster, once while using the launch tower’s pair of large “chopstick” pincers.
“To continue growing the workforce necessary to rapidly develop and manufacture Starship, we need the ability to grow Starbase as a community,” SpaceX’s letter reads. “… Incorporating Starbase will streamline the processes required to build the amenities necessary to make the area a world class place to live—for the hundreds already calling it home, as well as for prospective workers eager to help build humanity’s future in space.”
The company notes that its current agreements with Cameron County require overseeing “several civil functions” at the remote location, such as road management, utility maintenance, as well as “the provision of schooling and medical care for the residents.” SpaceX argues that the formation of a Starbase city will allow some of these responsibilities to transition to “a more appropriate public body.”
Musk’s attempt at building a new city from scratch is the latest in a series of moves intended to move his multiple companies from California to Texas. Musk has long claimed the former state’s bureaucratic red tape, regulatory burdens, labor protections, and heavy taxes are preventing his businesses from achieving their goals. Tesla’s main offices moved to Austin from Palo Alto, CA, in 2021. Earlier this year, he called a California law designed to protect the privacy of transgender minors “the final straw” in his decision to relocate both SpaceX headquarters to Texas.
This isn’t the first time Musk expressed plans to build a Starbase city in Texas. Prior to purchasing and renaming Twitter in 2021, the social media platform’s current CEO tweeted “Creating the city of Starbase, Texas,” without further context. In 2023, The Wall Street Journal reported separate plans to build Musk’s self-described “sort of Texas utopia along the Colorado River” called Snailbrook for employees of SpaceX and The Boring Company, his largely inactive underground transport system business with less than 200 employees.
In a statement provided to the Associated Press on Thursday, Cameron County’s top elected official, Judge Eddie Treviño, Jr., confirmed county commissioners will review SpaceX’s petition, ensure statutory requirements are met, and “go from there.”
“We want to emphasize that incorporation will have no impact on SpaceX’s commitment to being a science-backed steward of the local environment,” the company vowed in this week’s filing. “We will also continue our efforts to be a force for good in the area by funding public works in the area, supporting the conservation of local flora and fauna,” and donating to environmental organizations.
SpaceX, particularly its Starbase facility, has faced mounting criticism from Texas locals, conservationists, and Indigenous community members for multiple alleged environmental abuses. These have so far included claims of endangering protected wildlife and residents, as well as violating the EPA’s Clean Water Act for years.
“SpaceX and its Starbase employees and residents are already taking an active…,” the company letter’s first page reads before cutting off. Musk did not post the rest of the message.
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