Now Elon Musk is planning to create his own Starbase city in Texas. Elon Musk, now the richest person on the planet, has a new plan: a city of his own. The CEO behind SpaceX and Tesla recently raised the possibility of establishing a city around their facilities in Texas. Under the name Starbase, it will house the existing SpaceX facilities in Boca Chica and also a new Tesla factory.
SpaceX already has a significant presence in Texas, where it has a test base at McGregor and a launch pad at Boca Chica. On the other hand, Tesla announced the creation of a Gigafactory in Austin in 2020. Finally we have the fact that Elon Musk decided to move to Texas last December. A total of three indications of how the state of Texas has become key for Elon Musk.
As Elon Musk posted on Twitter recently, he’s “Creating the City of Starbase, Texas.” Later it was followed by another Tweet saying “From there to Mars and from there to the stars.” The tweets of Elon Musk there whenever taken seriously, though often an indication of plans for their companies.
However, changing the name of a city or creating a new one is not as easy as posting a tweet. While it is quite a declaration of intent, now Elon Musk will have to make a formal request to Cameron County, the county in Texas where the SpaceX facilities are located.
Why texas for Starbase
The headquarters of both SpaceX and Tesla are in California. However, the great activity of SpaceX is now already in Texas where they build Starship. On the other hand we have already seen how Elon Musk recently moved out of state as well. This is no accident, local and state incentives as well as the availability of natural resources in Texas have made it the ideal place to settle, even with a city of your own.
From Texas they also have access to the Gulf of Mexico, thus allowing the launch of rockets more easily. In fact, they recently acquired two oil rigs that will be converted into floating platforms for the launch of SpaceX rockets.
If all goes according to Elon Musk’s plans, Starbase will be the nerve center for SpaceX, Tesla and SpaceX’s Starlink division. It will now be up to local regulators and authorities.
