SpaceX Wants Starbase To Become an Official City In Texas (space.com) 65
SpaceX has filed a petition to incorporate its Starbase facility in South Texas as a new city, aiming to streamline infrastructure development and support the growing workforce needed for Starship production and testing. Space.com reports: "To continue growing the workforce necessary to rapidly develop and manufacture Starship, we need the ability to grow Starbase as a community," SpaceX said in the petition, which was shared in a post on X (formally Twitter). "That is why we are requesting that Cameron County call an election to enable the incorporation of Starbase as the newest city in the Rio Grande Valley."
The petition was addressed to Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino Jr., the county's top elected official. The next step will be for officials to review the petition to determine if it complies with statutory requirements. Then, an election would be held to incorporate Starbase. [...] With Starship expected to "fundamentally alter humanity's access to space," SpaceX aims to make the area of the Starbase launch site the "Gateway to Mars," the company wrote in the petition. [...] "Incorporating Starbase will streamline the processes required to build the amenities necessary to make the area a world class place to live -- for hundreds already calling it home, as well as for prospective workers eager to help build humanity's future in space," SpaceX officials said in the petition.
The petition was addressed to Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino Jr., the county's top elected official. The next step will be for officials to review the petition to determine if it complies with statutory requirements. Then, an election would be held to incorporate Starbase. [...] With Starship expected to "fundamentally alter humanity's access to space," SpaceX aims to make the area of the Starbase launch site the "Gateway to Mars," the company wrote in the petition. [...] "Incorporating Starbase will streamline the processes required to build the amenities necessary to make the area a world class place to live -- for hundreds already calling it home, as well as for prospective workers eager to help build humanity's future in space," SpaceX officials said in the petition.
Re: (Score:2)
Where do they live? I count about 100 (tiny) possible dwellings: https://starbasebrewery.com/pa... [starbasebrewery.com]
Photo is over a year old. Tiny dwellings might not take long to construct. They also have an Airstream camp and even a hovercraft to ferry commuters across the Rio Grande. Hundreds might call it “home”. SpaceX isn’t exactly an unpopular employer.
Re: (Score:2)
"SpaceX isn’t exactly an unpopular employer."
Is it approximately one? What "exactly" does this mean?
And this isn't about an employer, it's about a (potential) town. The willingness to confuse the two is precisely the problem. Humanity has moved past company towns, let's not return to indentured servitude, even in service to your nerd master.
Only (Score:3, Funny)
Only if we get to name it "Boondoggle".
Re: Only (Score:2, Informative)
Certainly true:
Musk supports a crazy president he knows to be crazy, and believes all sorts of nonsense rightwing conspiracies. Ask him about the Pelosi attack FFS.
Re: (Score:2)
Sadly there are also countless perfectly nice people who have achieved absolutely nothing and never will. It's really not that easy.
Re: (Score:1)
Funny how common it is now to see this excuse for Elmo's abhorrent behavior. "Absolutely nothing" as if that were even possible, is better than what that asshole has done.
Re: (Score:2)
"countless perfectly nice people" achieved being nice to others. In what demented world do you live?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: Only (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
LMAO
Re: (Score:2)
"Never diss a miracle man, sonny. You diss a miracle man, you get rotten miracles!"
Re: (Score:2)
Seems more like a snake-oil merchant these days.
Re: (Score:2)
Seems more like a snake-oil merchant these days.
I'm definitely no fan of Elon and think "snake oil" is probably a fair description of "full self driving" but in terms of SpaceX that's not a fair categorization.
SpaceX has launched about as many rockets this year as NASA did space shuttle launches over the entire thirty year history of the program. I realize that's not an apples to apples comparison given that the STS missions were manned and the vast majority of Falcon missions are not, and the shuttle had more payload to LEO, but a Falcon mission also c
Re: (Score:2)
Seems more like a snake-oil merchant these days.
I'm definitely no fan of Elon and think "snake oil" is probably a fair description of "full self driving" but in terms of SpaceX that's not a fair categorization.
SpaceX has launched about as many rockets this year as NASA did space shuttle launches over the entire thirty year history of the program. I realize that's not an apples to apples comparison given that the STS missions were manned and the vast majority of Falcon missions are not, and the shuttle had more payload to LEO, but a Falcon mission also costs, what, 5% of a shuttle mission?
That's not snake oil.
Seriously though - trying to flex on the Falcon 9 and Heavy's superiority compared to the Space Shuttle is a bit of a non sequitur. They are barely related. You are speaking of a now bog standard rocket versus what might be called a Space Pickup Truck, the difference between standard rocketry, and things like traveling to the Hubble and repairing it, or capturing satellites, or having several people doing experiments in space not on the Space Station. Or capacity.
Falcon 9 and Heavy are really good rock
Re: Only (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Trollville
Re: (Score:2)
Company Towns Again? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
Wastewater? Are you talking about the clean water they used to douse the rocket pad?
Re: (Score:1)
Wastewater? Are you talking about the clean water they used to douse the rocket pad?
Are you implying that clean water somehow doesn’t instantly become wastewater after using it for its intended purpose on a rocket pad?
* fills glass *
Drink up. Then we can sit back and hallucinate as to where it all goes.
Re: (Score:3)
Are you objecting to the compounds in the water or to its technical definition? The impression I get is vapid, groundless hatred with hints of virtue signalling and pseudoenvironmentalism. You don't need to grasp at straws to say Musk is an asshole, it's a widely known fact that he is.
Re: (Score:2)
Not confident that giving them streamlined processes will benefit humanity.
Perhaps if all the right people go to Mars?
Re: (Score:2)
Not confident that giving them streamlined processes will benefit humanity.
Perhaps if all the right people go to Mars?
Going to be a million people there in 2050.
At some point, people will wake up to find out the purpose of StarShip is to deliver shitloads of StarLink Satellites for Musk's grand Kessler syndrome fun.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome.
I mean, who is going to install the StarShip Grabber on Mars?
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
"Not confident that giving them streamlined processes will benefit humanity."
There won't be any "giving", only taking. And the laws aren't structured to deny sociopath billionaires. Wait until this abomination gets big enough to have annexation powers. Then Musk will simply take control of everyone's land at the maximum rate the law allows. Don't confuse this with benefitting humanity.
Re: (Score:2)
What they need to do to expand is dredge the estuary to create more land for themselves, in the same way that many Florid
Re: Company Towns Again? (Score:2)
Yup, there's nothing Texans like better than new arrivals from California illegally squatting on their property.
Re: (Score:2)
Yup, there's nothing Texans like better than new arrivals from California illegally squatting on their property.
Thats a pretty dark statement, since a squatter in Texas has “rights” that last as about as long as it takes for a gun to clear a holster.
Re: (Score:2)
Yup, there's nothing Texans like better than new arrivals from California illegally squatting on their property.
Thats a pretty dark statement, since a squatter in Texas has “rights” that last as about as long as it takes for a gun to clear a holster.
Don't even need to be a squatter - just show up at the wrong address, and Texas law says you can kill the person.
Re: (Score:2)
Let me guess (Score:2)
This would make it easier and cheaper to get things built, with fewer restrictions
Re: Let me guess (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
no, just another post for a few rubles
Re: Let me guess (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
it's only insane to you because of your entitlement, it's common. Notice you haven't said anything about how difficult it would be to "have a permit", the most important aspect of whether to judge how "insane" it is.
A permit allows the local government to know if you are likely to engage in risky construction that may jeopardize your neighbors and burden local society. It may also give notice that you intend to do environmental damage. That's what permits are, they are processes the prevent you from doin
Re: (Score:2)
And the problem with that is? Here we even have to have a permit to take down a tree in my own backyard or put up a little gardenshed, talk about insane regulation.
I know! The bastards wouldn't let my build my freedom nuclear waste dump in my backyards. WAKE UP AMERICA!
That's what I was thinking... (Score:3)
Companies won't want to go through the trouble of incorporating a city unless it gets them something of greater value in return. Like less regulation. And tax revenue. Especially the tax revenue.
My guess is that SpaceX is tired of paying for all the roads and sewers and electrical infrastructure it needs to get its [not a] city to run. Why do that when there's all these [freeloading] residents there that can be taxed instead?
Re: (Score:2)
There were 26 freeloading residents in Boca Chica before SpaceX moved in.
Not much of a tax base.
Re: (Score:2)
At the expense of everyone else.
All of a sudden, (Score:3)
Elon Musk now wants more government in his business.
Re: (Score:2)
Not at all. He wants his business to be the government.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
That's the definition of a fascist. el Bunko is selling off the U.S. government agencies to the billionaires one bunko scheme at a time. So Elmo will be in good company.
One wonders what el Bunko's minder in the Kremlin will offer for Ukraine.
Re: (Score:2)
One wonders what el Bunko's minder in the Kremlin will offer for Ukraine.
Thanks to DJT [wikipedia.org] and World Liberty Financial, there are now really great ways to just pay him off with cold, hard cash, in quantities that are mind-blowing for any but the largest corporations but nothing to foreign governments. A single policy decision he hasn't even enacted yet -- reversal of the TikTok ban -- more than doubled Trump's net worth. Putin could 10X Trump's wealth with the Kremlin's pocket change.
We need some serious anti-corruption legislation in the US. That it's even possible for a US pres
Re: (Score:2)
That's the definition of a fascist. el Bunko is selling off the U.S. government agencies to the billionaires one bunko scheme at a time. So Elmo will be in good company.
One wonders what el Bunko's minder in the Kremlin will offer for Ukraine.
Do you feel that the alternative to “Elmo” with NASA getting spun back up at 10x the cost, only to regurgitate some warped version of Reagan’s Star Wars program so we can all be more than prepared to blow each other up from orbit while insisting there’s a nameless, faceless “enemy” out there that needs trillions of taxpayer dollars to protect against, is better?
Tell me what the definition of that is, taxpayer.
Thirty minutes to nuclear annihilation? Trips to Mars? Ain
Re: (Score:2)
Billionaires have never opposed government, they oppose not BEING the government. Leona's goal is to be Putin only not in a pissant country.
Sure, incubate new ideas for governance (Score:3)
Maybe Starbase, Texas will come up with some novel ways to streamline the regulatory state. Government is just another organization, no reason it can't be improved upon.
Re: (Score:2)
Ways like compulsory work, no minimum wage, no education and no health care? Just how does local government override the sovereignty of the state and federal governments?
There is indeed "no reason it can't be improved upon" depending on the definition of "it" and "improve".
Nothing says Texas... (Score:1)
...like Texas being Texas.
This WILL be approved. Mr. Musk's "we're a leavin' Caleeforniar" venture will be a city. He will be mayor without title.
Grimes and her kids be damned. Money talks, and singer songwriter walks. F the tech "billionaires".
For those who want to stand up to these tech billionaries, don't put up with their bullying ibe. They are very wealthy. So was United Heatlhcare's CEO.
Re: (Score:2)
Of course it will be "approved", the law here is a procedure, it is not discretionary. This can be fought only by people refusing to work for and do business with this total piece of shit. Instead, people are greedy so they invest in the world's worst cretins, then here we are. It's pure capitalism unconstrained by decency, you know, this shit regularly cheered on by the deep thinkers at /.
Kodos and Kang watch news with keen interest (Score:2)
"I'm just waiting for them to open"
"We will strike when they claim to be the first!"
"If they claim to be the biggest, well..."
Then they see an unusual transmission, an ad for choicest cuts straight off the grille
Place our forces on high alert! Yes, NOW!
Sooner to mars the better (Score:2)
A way to sidestep legal requirements (Score:2)
On top of that Republicans will be able
Feudal Lords (Score:3)
This is the beginning of the 21st Century Feudal Lord system.
Similar to the "Company Towns" of the past, only new and shiny.
Plus it gives Leon a method of diverting funds that the Company would be on the hook to paying to the "City" which DEFINITELY will be receiving State and Federal funding.
Why is this evil somehow? (Score:2)
It's looking to get a vote to incorporate. I live in a town that incorporated 25 years ago. It got us a mayor and council and let us have tighter control over zoning, have our own police, and identify as a community. We were being controlled by county leadership that didn't care about our unique situation and allowed all sorts of poor zoning decisions, took our sales tax, and "thumbed their nose" at us. Incorporating was a great improvement. How is this democratic process evil?
Re: (Score:2)