Elon Musk’s SpaceX testing site could become an official Texas city, but critics say it would give the billionaire too much control
Elon MuskIt has been for years that Texas has been a business and playground house, launching rockets, building cars, and dreaming about creating a utopian enclave for his countryside workers outside the state capital.
Today, a new Musk project is on the brink of victory: a Saturday election to officially unite a small coastal patch in South Texas – home to its rocket company Spacex – in a city known as Starbase.
If Musk prevails-who appear likely, as the small number of residents who are eligible to vote will be with his employees — it will be a success for the mega-billionaire thatFame is goneBecause he has beenChain-Saw-wieldingpublic face ofPresident Donald Trump'sFederal work andSpending cuts,and sank over $ 20 million in a failed tip effortElections in the Supreme Court of Wisconsin.Earnings in his Tesla car company haveplummeted.
As of Tuesday, nearly 200 out of 283 deserved voters submitted an early ballot, according to county election elections. The list of names to this day does not include Musk, whoVote in the countyIn the November election.
The Cosmic Dateline seems to be a vanity project of a billionaire in a place where the person and his galactic dreams are enjoyed by extensive support from residents and states and local officials. But there are creeping concerns that city votes and associates in the state legislature will give Musk and his town a great control over a popular swimming area of swimming and camping known to generations as “poor man's beaches.”
Setting up a company of the company
Saturday's vote to establish Starbase is seen as a finished deal.
The South Texas city tips near the Mexican border was just 1.5 square miles (3.9 square kilometers), which were cruscred by some roads and turned to airstream trailers and moderate midcentury homes. The polling site is at a building on Memes St., a rude nod to the Musk X social media company.
Musk first floated to the idea of a Starbase city in 2021. Spacex officials said a bit about the exact reason why they wanted a company town, and did not respond to messages looking for comment this week. But a battle with the highlights of accessing the beach at least part of what could be at stake.
Launching the Spacex Rocket and engine tests, and even moving some equipment around the base of the launch, requires closing a local highway and accessing Boca Chica State Park and Boca Chica Beach.
The closure currently requires collaboration with the surrounding Cameron county. Two bills that state lawmakers are considering will transfer most of that responsibility to the new city, such as seeking the company's permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to increase the number of launches from five to 25 a year.
Spacex officials said the bills will be able to put beach and operation closing closure and operations with a company with contracts with the defense department and is NASA to use heavy rocket starship, including a goal to restore astronauts to the moon and eventually Mars.
“This fully available rocket system maintains the US in advance of global competitors such as China, and the being developed right here in South Texas,” Spacex's vice president of Starship Legal and Regulatory Sheila McCorkle wrote to state lawmakers. He noted the company's $ 4 billion investment and thousands of jobs in Texas.
“We need to carry out our mission of making South Texas at the gateway to Mars and make it a lot of people,” McCorkle wrote.
Public pushing
A legislative hearing this month on Beach Access Bills has only been drawn by a few company executives and environmental activists but have developed ways -a comments from supporters and opponents.
Dose -two people who introduced themselves as Spacex workers, scientists and engineers living in the area that submit similar statements: “It improves coordination around beach accessing during spaceflight activities without increasing closure. This is the key to public safety and continued growth of the Texas space industry.”
Others praised the mission, work and investment in Spacex in the area.
Opponents contradict that the state will provide muscle and his company is excessive control over a beach that draws thousands of guests each year.
Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino Jr. said the County has become a great steward for beach closing and there is no need to move the authority to the new city.
“Spacex is a powerful economic driver in our region, where we are highly proud,” Trevino said in a letter to state lawmakers. “However, we believe that this bill does not serve public interest and has received a great negative response from our local community,”
Another suggested bill will make a class B misdemeanor up to 180 days in prison if a person does not comply with a command to evacuate the beach. But this proposal will only take effect if the beach closure authority is transferred to the new city.
In a temporary riot for Musk and Spacex, a state panel this week refused a bill that would change control of beaches for the rocket launch from the local county government to the new city.
Bekah Hinojosa, co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, has organized protests against city vote and beach access issues. The group will make another protest on Saturday, even if the city is likely to be easily approved.
Hinojosa said his organization tried to arrange a block walk around Spacex to encourage voters to reject the city's vote. The company's private security has submitted them away, he said.
“We have been alarming about Musk and Spacex for many years,” Hinojosa said. “Now that the rest of the country is starting to listen, if it feels like we're finally heard.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
