SpaceX is shooting for Mars, with Elon Musk’s rocket company racing to bring humanity closer to being a multi-planetary species. Back here on Earth, the leader of President Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is hoping his company gets a chance to start a government of its own in Texas.
Starbase is where SpaceX researches, launches and tests rockets and it could soon become the newest town in America.
However, this wouldn’t be your typical town; it would be a company community now filled with mostly SpaceX employees.
It’s less than two square miles in size and it butts right up to a Texas state nature preserve and Boca Chica Beach along the Gulf Shore.
A sign for Starbase highlights SpaceX’s ambition to reach Mars.
ABC News
Last year, a petition was submitted to the state of Texas by SpaceX to create a new town; the new municipality would function as its own city with the ability to create its own fire department and emergency services, even a school district.
A few hundred current registered residents, including Musk himself who is registered to vote at an address within the proposed town, are now voting on making it official — what was once a small, sleepy beach community on the outskirts of Brownsville, Texas, could be officially known as Starbase City.
Brownsville resident Rene Medrano’s home sits 20 miles from the coast. Having gone to Boca Chica Beach as a kid and bringing his own family once he got older, Medrano told ABC News it’s in his blood.
“It was called a poor man’s beach because you didn’t have to pay anything to go to the beach other than just get in your car, get in your truck, round up the neighbors, round up the cousins, round up the aunts and uncles and let’s go have fun,” he said. “And to see now the way it is…it’s just, disheartening is what it is.”
SpaceX had its first Starship launch in April 2023; successfully coming off and clearing the launch pad, then losing control of its super heavy booster engines. The company said it triggered Starship’s flight termination system after the boosters failed to separate and it veered off its planned trajectory.
Brownsville resident Rene Medrano has been using Bota China for his whole life, and is concerned about SpaceX limiting his ability to continue going there.
ABC News
However, the company was laying the groundwork for something much bigger more than a decade ago. Medrano recalled a SpaceX representative going to his wife’s school to pitch a “small test site” in 2014, but said the person told locals the beach would remain accessible to them.
“Who would ever think they wanted to go to Mars 10 years later?” he said. “I mean, that was never in the formula. You know?”
Since 2014, SpaceX has had eight launches from Boca Chica with staggered success. Now, the company is asking the FAA to grant permits that would allow SpaceX to launch up to 25 times a year.
“You have a lot of visitors that go to the island to see the rocket launches. But then those people leave,” Medrano said. “We see the spaceship blowups. We see the environments, you know, with all the rocket launches being torn up around that area. We see Boca Chica Beach the way we knew it — we don’t know that place anymore.”
Bekah Hinojosa, who leads a local environmental group, told ABC News that SpaceX has disrupted everyday life in the area.
“The rocket launches are dangerous. They cause our homes to shake. SpaceX has been caught illegally dumping polluted water onto Boca Chica Beach, into our ecosystems,” she said. “The rent is going up. And it’s all associated with, you know, SpaceX coming into this area and colonizing the region.”
The SpaceX spaceport is beside Bota Chica Beach, making locals concerned about access to the sandy shoreline.
ABC News
If this area becomes its own municipality, SpaceX wants control of the nearby beach and road that leads to the spaceport. Bills proposed in the Texas legislature would give Starbase the power to close beaches and roads on weekdays.
Texas State Rep. Janie Lopez, who authored a bill related to Starbase, testified during an April 14 committee hearing that it won’t take Boca Chica Beach away from the public.
“All it’s doing is, if the people decide on May 3 that they want to make their own municipality, then they will decide who will be their governing board and they will make the decisions on closures based on what the FAA is requiring.”
There is real concern at the cost of SpaceX’s ambitions for those who call the area home — Medrano pointed to the state’s Open Beaches Act, which guarantees free public access to its sandy shores.
“Give us the beach … I mean, what’s so hard about that?” he said. “Go to Mars, do your thing, get your rockets and go. But let us do our thing too.”
ABC News reached out to SpaceX for comment, but has not heard back.
