McALLEN, Texas (AP) — SpaceX is launching a brand new project: making its Starbase web page a brand new Texas town. Billionaire Elon Musk ‘s corporate on Thursday despatched a letter to native officers inquiring for an election to show what it calls Starbase — the South Texas web page the place SpaceX builds and launches its huge Starship rockets — into an included town. Citizens of the realm referred to as Starbase submitted the petition, in keeping with the corporate. The realm is at the southern tip of Texas at Boca Chica Seashore, close to the Mexican border. Previous this yr, Musk introduced he was once shifting the headquarters of SpaceX and his social media corporate X from California to Texas. “To proceed rising the group of workers essential to swiftly expand and manufacture Starship, we want the power to develop Starbase as a neighborhood. For this reason we’re inquiring for that Cameron County name an election to allow the incorporation of Starbase as the latest town within the Rio Grande Valley,” Kathryn Lueders, the overall supervisor of Starbase, wrote in a letter to the county.
It’s no longer the primary time turning Starbase into its personal town has been floated. Musk proposed the theory in 2021 when he wrote a social media put up that merely mentioned, “Developing town of Starbase, Texas.”
Cameron County Pass judgement on Eddie Treviño Jr., the county’s best elected legitimate, mentioned in spite of the talks of incorporation in 2021, this was once the primary time a petition was once formally filed.
“Our prison and elections management will evaluate the petition, see whether or not or no longer it complied with the entire statutory necessities after which we’ll cross from there,” Treviño mentioned on Thursday. Greater than 3,400 full-time SpaceX staff and contractors paintings on the Starbase web page, in keeping with a neighborhood have an effect on find out about issued by means of Trevino previous this yr. SpaceX’s speedy growth within the area has drawn pushback from some locals. Previous this yr, a bunch known as Save RGV sued the corporate in July over allegations of environmental violations and dumping polluted water into the within sight bay. SpaceX mentioned in reaction {that a} state evaluate discovered no environmental dangers and known as the lawsuit “frivolous.”
