The home of Elon Musk’s SpaceX could become an official Texas city called Starbase

FILE - A visitor photographs a large bust of Elon Musk near SpaceX's Starbase as the Starship is prepared for a test flight in Boca Chica, Texas, March 5, 2025. Photo by Eric Gay /AP

Article content

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Elon Musk has for years made Texas a business home and playground, launching rockets, building cars, and dreaming about creating a utopian enclave for his workers on the rural outskirts of the state capital.

Article content

Article content

Now, a new Musk project is on the brink of victory: an election Saturday to officially turn a small patch of coastal South Texas — home to his rocket company SpaceX — into a city known as Starbase.

Article content

Article content

If Musk prevails — which appears likely, since the small number of residents eligible to vote include his employees — it will be a victory for the mega-billionaire whose popularity has waned since he became the chain-saw-wielding public face of President Donald Trump’s federal job and spending cuts, and sunk more than $20 million into a failed effort to tip Wisconsin Supreme Court elections. Profits at his Tesla car company have plummeted.

Article content

Article content

As of Tuesday, nearly 200 of 283 eligible voters had already cast an early ballot, according to county election records. The list of names so far does not include Musk, who voted in the county in the November elections.

Article content

The cosmic dateline sounds like a billionaire’s vanity project in an area where the man and his galactic dreams already enjoy broad support from residents and state and local officials. But there are creeping concerns that the city vote and companion efforts at the state Legislature will give Musk and his company town too much control over access to a popular swimming and camping area known for generations as the “poor people’s beach.”

Article content

Article content

Setting up a company town

Article content

Saturday’s vote to establish Starbase is seen as a done deal.

Article content

The proposed city at the southern tip of Texas near the Mexico border is only about 1.5 square miles (3.9 square kilometers), crisscrossed by a few roads and dappled with airstream trailers and modest mid-century homes. The polling site is in a building on Memes St., a cheeky nod to Musk’s social media company X.

Article content

Musk first floated the idea of a Starbase city in 2021. SpaceX officials have said little about exactly why they want a company town, and did not respond to messages seeking comment this week. But a fight over beach access highlights at least part of what could be at stake.

Article content

SpaceX rocket launches and engine tests, and even just moving certain equipment around the launch base, requires closing a local highway and access to Boca Chica State Park and Boca Chica Beach.