Welcome to Starbase, Texas. SpaceX wants to colonize Mars, but it needs its own city to achieve it. And that is exactly what he has explained to the authorities in southeast Texas, with the approval of the state governor.
Context. In July, Elon Musk published in X that SpaceX’s headquarters would move from California to Texas in response to a series of California laws. What “broke the camel’s back,” according to Musk, was AB1955, which prohibits school districts from requiring parents to be notified of changes in students’ sexual orientation and gender identity.
Musk had already moved Tesla’s headquarters from California to Texas, as well as his own residence. There is no state personal income tax in Texas, and Musk’s companies have incentives and strong government support, including the favor of Greg Abbottthe governor of the state.
Welcome to Starbase, Texas. SpaceX’s headquarters will not be Austin, as in the case of Tesla, but a new city created by the company itself around the Starship factory. SpaceX has been expanding its land for years in the village of Boca Chica, southeast of Texas, next to the mouth of the Rio Grande.
There it develops its new Starship rocket, a program that has revitalized the economy of Cameron County and the surrounding city of Brownsville. It has now begun the process of incorporating Starbase, Texas, as an official municipality, with its own zip code and city hall.
Why SpaceX needs its own city. To eliminate bureaucratic friction in the transformation of the place and attract talent to the town, says a petition to the county judge signed by Kathryn Lueders, former director of NASA’s human flight program and current manager of Starbase at SpaceX.
“Incorporating Starbase will streamline processes to build the necessary amenities that will make the area a world-class place to live,” Lueders wrote. “Both for the hundreds who already call it home and for the future workers who want to help build humanity’s future in space.”
Starbase civil affairs. Even without officially establishing itself as a municipality, SpaceX has been managing some civil affairs around Starbase, such as managing roads, whose traffic is frequently interrupted by Starship tests.
SpaceX also provides certain public services, such as education and health care for families employed directly or indirectly by the company. Putting Starbase, Texas, on the map would transfer these efforts to a new public entity, but the local economy would still be strongly linked to SpaceX, which is currently under heavy scrutiny from the federal government over the possible environmental effects of Starship testing.
Elon takes it for granted. Musk he said on his X account that now SpaceX’s headquarters would be the city of Starbase, Texas. To which Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, responded: “This is great: Starbase, Texas, official headquarters of SpaceX. Proud to have you in Texas.”
SpaceX is not the first company to do something similar. In Aichi Prefecture, Japan, there is the city of Toyota, which is home to the car manufacturer’s factories and research and development centers. Huawei has built a huge campus with all kinds of facilities in China where it wants to house 30,000 people. And Google has collaborated in the construction of a neighborhood called Sidewalk Toronto in the Canadian city.
Image | SpaceX
In techopiniones | Elon Musk dreamed of building a city for his employees. It’s about to become a reality in Texas