The area surrounding Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket launch site in southern Texas has officially become a city after a vote by residents in the area on May 3. The city, called Starbase, has been slated to become SpaceX’s headquarters for the past few years, according to Musk.
SpaceX’s rocket launch pad has been in the area since 2019, but Musk has been buying land in Cameron County since 2012. In 2024, SpaceX submitted a petition to officials for an election that would grant the area city status, and the petition was approved in February.
Under Texas law, a new city can be incorporated if at least 10% of registered voters in the area filed a petition for it and the majority of resident voters approve it at the ballot box.
Last weekend, 218 residents in Cameron County, Texas, voted on whether to make Starbase its own city, with 212 voting to pass the measure. Most of the residents work for SpaceX. Now that Starbase is a city, voters had to select leadership, which they did: SpaceX employee Bobby Peden was unanimously elected the mayor, and SpaceX employees Jordan Buss and Jenna Petrzelka were elected commissioners. (It’s not clear whether Musk himself voted in this election.)
“Becoming a city will help us continue building the best community possible for the men and women building the future of humanity’s place in space,” an X account dedicated to Starbase posted on May 3.
What is Starbase?
Starbase is a relatively remote area within Cameron County, near the border between the U.S. and Mexico. It’s about 1.5 square miles of land, and nearly every resident either works at SpaceX or is married to or related to a SpaceX employee. The closest city is Brownsville, which is about 20 miles away; Texas State Highway 4 is the only road in and out of Starbase.
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Starbase currently hosts a SpaceX landing pad, a SpaceX launch facility and a launch control center to test its rockets, which have all been around since 2019. There is an existing housing area for SpaceX employees, including the home where Musk is registered to vote in Texas, according to the New York Times.
SpaceX’s rocket manufacturing facility and office building are near the housing area and feature a mural depicting a colony on Mars, which Musk has emphasized is his goal with SpaceX.
There are still several vacant areas of land within the city limits that suggest more growth for the city, like additional housing. In January 2024, SpaceX announced it was investing about $8.9 million in building a restaurant, retail space and a grocery store.
A $100 million, five-story office building was finished earlier this year, according to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation.
Starbase has been Musk’s plan for years
Expanding SpaceX’s presence in Texas specifically has been in Musk’s vision for years. In 2021, he tweeted “Creating the city of Starbase, Texas.”
In July 2024, Musk announced on X that he was moving his SpaceX headquarters from Hawthorne, Calif., to the southern part of Texas, where Starbase now exists. He also announced that the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, would be moving from San Francisco to Austin, Texas.
In 2021, Musk said California was a land of “overregulation, overlitigation, overtaxation.” Unlike California, Texas does not have corporate income tax or income or capital-gains taxes on individuals.
The move was also partly in reaction to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signing the SAFETY Act, a law that prohibits school districts from requiring teachers to inform parents if a child wants to be identified by a different gender or pronouns.
By early 2012, after much speculation, it was reported that Texas was a leading contender for housing SpaceX’s launch facility, and in 2014, SpaceX announced it planned to make an $85 million investment and start building its site near Brownsville, Texas.
“In addition to creating hundreds of high-tech jobs for the Texas workforce, this site will inspire students, expand the supplier base and attract tourists to the South Texas area,” Musk said in a statement at the time.
Weeks after announcing his plan for building Starbase in Texas in 2021, Musk tweeted that his charity, the Musk Foundation, would funnel $10 million into helping rebuild downtown Brownsville and $20 million to help schools throughout Cameron County.
Future plans for Starbase
A visitor at the large bust of Elon Musk near SpaceX’s Starbase. (Eric Gay/AP)
Starbase’s X account said on Monday that its leaders were working with federal agencies to establish a ZIP code for the city and officially rename the area. Soon, according to the X post, residents will be able to legally update their driver’s licenses to reflect that they live in Starbase, Texas.
According to a filing with the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, SpaceX is now working on a $22 million community building project, which should start in mid-June. The city also reportedly plans to build a school called Ad Astra, named after the one Musk launched for five of his children in 2014.
Current residents are fighting for Starbase to get connected to a local water system, according to the New York Times, but that does not seem to be in the process of happening. Instead, residents currently must have their water trucked in from Brownsville.
