SpaceX headquarters could soon become Texas' newest city known as Starbase if a small group of voters approves the measure at the polls on Saturday.
Out of curiosity, I looked into why SpaceX picked Boca Chica, Texas, and honestly, it lines up with what they’re trying to do. It’s way down south at 25.9971° N, so launching east gives them a bit more help from Earth’s spin. It’s not a game-changer, but when you’re hauling something as heavy as Starship, every bit of velocity helps.
What really stood out, though, is the control they’ve got out there. Unlike Cape Canaveral or Vandenberg, Boca Chica is theirs, no waiting on other launches, no sharing the schedule. They can build, test, and fly on their own terms. That’s probably why Musk started floating the name “Starbase, TX” not just a launch pad, but a full-on company town for spaceflight.
One more thing, it’s not all wide-open skies. The area’s boxed in by the Gulf and the Mexican border, and environmental pushback has been steady, from habitat concerns to lawsuits. But for now, it looks like Boca Chica gives them just enough space to chase what they’re aiming for.
…and no state income tax.
Now if Musk could just get that pesky FAA off his back, life would be good. Maybe he can get his new Best Buddy to issue an Executive Order… 
Corporations go to great lengths to avoid being regulated and to avoid paying taxes. Musk hates both so much that he moved a company that makes electric vehicles and huge batteries for storing solar and wind generated energy, to an oil and gas state that hates both. It seems like an odd pairing.
@FlyerDon: Texas gives Musk room, physically and politically. Kind of hard to miss the irony: a guy pushing EVs and solar sets up shop in a state built on oil and not big on environmental rules. Feels a little off, maybe even hypocritical. But Texas gets jobs, tax money, and shiny new tech, so not many are complaining – too loud.
We were just there, spent time on the beach. It is an impressive facility, Texas is far more than just no state income tax. Compared to California, it is freedom and a free state. Moving an EV factory to Texas from California changes the whole state regulatory and permitting picture and removes them from the ephemeral winds of the California Assembly and governor, to a state with a concrete and stable infrastructure and governance. At least until too many Californians move there.
People and businesses leaving California for Texas aren’t all trying to make a political statement. My impression is that they’re mostly just tired of red tape and high costs --taxes. They want room to build, work, and live without feeling boxed in. It’s not a flood, but it’s a steady migration that’s reshaping parts of Texas.
Call it a “go west, young man” in reverse. SpaceX down in Boca Chica is one piece of it, but so are Tesla in Austin, Oracle, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and a bunch of smaller outfits making the same move.
‘Compared to California, it is freedom and a free state.’
Thanks for the Sunday laugh, though if I lived in Texas I couldn’t buy a beer on Sunday to enjoy the chuckle or the playoff game…
Of course it’s the perfect state for Elon, the billionaire class and those with power and money. They’re free to exploit businesses for low wages with almost zero worker protections.
No right for teachers to collectively bargain or unionize.
No protection for the total freedom of bodily autonomy of all women, transgender or gay individuals.
A terrible, criminal foster child system that loses kids and allows them to be trafficked.
A pathetic infrastructure transportation system and no public lands with free access.
And government civil asset forfeiture laws increasingly used to grow government and remove property rights and individual freedoms.
Yet the list of restrictions and abuses of citizens in the state continues, like education ranking scraping the national bottom ground with state incarceration rates touching the clouds.
If we do not have total freedom in our most private, intimate lives we have no freedom at all.
But states like Texas are skilled at fooling people too materialistically driven to know any better. Deceit is not Freedom.
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