Elon Musk ’s private space firm SpaceX now has its own municipality in Texas , utter with its own Mayor and Commissioner , following a Cameron County vote on Saturday .
Musk has been outspoken in the past about his desire to work the SpaceX base of operations into a full - fledged metropolis , after the business firm first began buying up land there in 2012 .
" Starbase is home to the development and yield of SpaceX ’s Starship , a undertaking design to fundamentally change humanity ’s accession to blank . We are investing billion in infrastructure and return 100 of millions in income and tax for local line of work and governing , all with the goal of make South Texas the Gateway to Mars , " SpaceXsaid in a letterto county judge Eddie Treviño in December .
" SpaceX is lofty to trifle a major part in the South Texas and Cameron County communities , which are habitation to thousands of our employee , with several hundred living at Starbase . To continue acquire the manpower necessary to apace formulate and manufacture Starship , we need the power to grow Starbase as a community . That is why we are requesting that Cameron County call an election to turn on the incorporation of Starbase as the newest city in the Rio Grande Valley . "
Some 283 residents , mostly employed by SpaceX , were eligible to vote in an election on Saturday , May 3 , ascertain whether the area would be grant city position , as well as electing commissioners and a mayor for it . Of those,216 voted in favorof the new Starbase City , with six voting against . In the same election SpaceX Vice President Bobby Peden was elected Mayor , while older theatre director of environmental wellness and safety for SpaceX , Jordan Buss , and former SpaceX operations engineering managerJenna Petrzelkawere elected as commissioners . All ran unopposed .
Starbase City will become a Type C metropolis , a category of municipality home to fewer than 5,000 people , per theBBC . With this status , official will be able to impose a local dimension tax of up to 1.5 percent , among other powers .
While employees of the business firm voted overpoweringly in favour of the move , residents of the surrounding area have concerns . A bank bill currently get going through Texas may yield the urban center the power to close a local main road during launches , limit admittance to Boca Chica Beach and Boca Chica State Park . The companionship has not manoeuvre there without issue , and was fined $ 150,000 by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality after deck wastewater , though SpaceX observe that the fine were due to " disagreements over paperwork " .
Like a lot of therest of the Earth , the country has had its fair share of SpaceX debris raining down on it during " uncontrolled disassemblies " or " rocket detonation " .
" Impacts from the launching admit numerous orotund concrete chunks , stainless sword sheets , metal , and other object hurled thousands of feet away along with a plume swarm of powderize concrete that deposited material up to 6.5 air mile north-west of the launch pad situation , " theUS Fish and Wildlife Service say to CNBC in 2023 , following an plosion which do a 1.4 - hectare ( 3.5 - acre ) area of Boca Chica State Park land on fire , adding that they , " documented around 385 acres of debris on SpaceX ’s adroitness and at Boca Chica State Park , which is leased by the Service and managed as a ingredient of the Lower Rio Grande National Wildlife Refuge . ”
Environmental groupshave concernsaround how the company has already operate in the arena , prior to being made a urban center , largely focus on on the effect to the immediate orbit , its turtles , and hundreds of bird species . Musk has often name regularisation , as well as government , as a reason to move operations to Texas . Now he has his own city , and a certain amount of control over what he does with it . With the approaching neb calculate at allowing SpaceX to control access to nearby beaches and national parking lot , his city could soon be at betting odds with the ring arena .
