Elon Musk creates in Texas that no other company and business leader has ever done, makes it a …
Elon Musk’s plan to turn SpaceX’s Texas launch site into a city has now become a reality. On Saturday (May 3), voters approved the creation of the City of Starbase. The site is located at Boca Chica Bay, near the border between the United States and Mexico. The SpaceX CEO and owner of X shared the news on his social media platform, writing, “Starbase, Texas, is now a real city!”
The vote was held among about 283 eligible people, most of whom were SpaceX employees or had links to the company. The ballot also named a senior SpaceX representative Bobby Peden as the city mayor after receiving 100 percent of the early vote. As per LinkedIn profile, Peden is the vice president of testing and launches at SpaceX.
In another post on X, Musk highlighted the city’s origin. He shared two images. While one showed Elon Musk and a few others at the inauguration ceremony, standing with shovels in the sand. The second image showed the completed Starbase office building.
“Starbase started with one shovel,” Musk wrote in the post.
SpaceX’s work at Starbase
SpaceX began building its launch facility at Boca Chica in 2014. The company uses the site mainly for the development and testing of its Starship rocket. Starship is designed to carry large numbers of people and cargo to the Moon, Mars, and beyond.
In 2021, Musk first mentioned plans to create a city called Starbase. He said the area would include not just launch facilities but also homes, businesses, and public services to support future space missions. SpaceX has been expanding the site since then, adding new launch pads, production facilities, and testing grounds.
Starbase city part of Musk’s larger vision of reaching Mars
The formation of the City of Starbase is part of a broader effort to build a space-centered community on Earth. Musk’s larger goal is to make human life multi-planetary. Starbase plays a key role in these plans, serving as the launch center for missions that could one day send people to Mars.
Musk has previously said that his goal is to send the first crewed mission to Mars as early as the 2030s. The plan includes building a fleet of Starships capable of carrying supplies and people needed to create a self-sustaining city on the Red Planet.