SpaceX’s remote site on the Gulf coast will become the next city in Texas

Residents of South Texas voted Saturday to incorporate Starbase, SpaceX’s remote launch site on the Gulf coast, as a city. But some locals have concerns.

The campus for SpaceX’s Starship system, known as Starbase, can be seen for miles. Its launch site towers over the remote coastal flatlands that have long defined this southern tip of Texas. For the past decade, SpaceX has developed this area, building a space flight system designed to take humans to Mars and conducting eight suborbital test flights of the world’s most powerful rocket. People who come here to fish in the Gulf now pass through a corridor of rapid construction, heavy machinery and enormous propellant and water tanks. And soon this area, known as Starbase, will be the newest city in Texas. On Saturday, voters supported a move to incorporate as a Type-C municipality and elect a small city government with a mayor and two city commissioners, according to unofficial election results from Cameron County. The Starbase area has 283 registered voters, and the vast majority are SpaceX employees. Voters decided overwhelmingly to incorporate. Nearly every vote cast was in favor of it, the unofficial results showed. The Cameron County Commissioners Court will need to certify the results, and the change will go into effect once the county judge enters an order declaring the city incorporated. “Starbase, Texas Is now a real city!” SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in a post on X Saturday night. Incorporating marks another step toward making this part of the Rio Grande Valley the next frontier in space flight, but some critics fear Musk’s company is becoming too powerful. On top of existing environmental concerns about disruptive sonic booms and debris, they worry that by becoming its own city, SpaceX will have more autonomy to skirt regulations and exert greater control over access to the beloved Boca Chica Beach. It’s a fight that’s even made its way to the Texas legislature this year.