Elon Musk's SpaceX has sent a letter to local officials in southern Texas outlining a new mission: to transform the remote area where the company launches rockets into an incorporated town named "Starbase, Texas."
SpaceX launches rockets on the southern tip of Texas at Boca Chica Beach, near the Mexican border.
Incorporating the remote area would "streamline the processes required to build the amenities necessary to make the area a world-class place to live—for the hundreds already calling it home, as well as for prospective workers eager to help build humanity's future in space," the company wrote in a letter to Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr., the county's top elected official.
"As you know, through agreements with the County, SpaceX currently performs several civil functions around Starbase due to its remote location, including management of the roads, utilities, and the provision of schooling and medical care for the residents. Incorporation would move the management of some of these functions to a more appropriate public body," the letter said.
AP News quoted Judge Treviño, who said there were incorporation talks in 2021. However, this was the first time a petition was officially filed.
"Our legal and elections administration will review the petition, see whether or not it complied with all of the statutory requirements and then we'll go from there," the judge said.
Earlier this year, the judge issued a local impact study finding that 3,400 full-time SpaceX employees and contractors work at the rocket launch site.
SpaceX's rapid expansion comes as Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX, told investors last month that Starship launches over the next four years could exceed 400.
CNBC confirmed on Wednesday that the latest valuation for SpaceX hit $350 billion based on a secondary share sale.
As previously noted, SpaceX launched 362 metric tons of upmass to space in the third quarter. In other words, Musk's company launched 86% of the upmass in the world, beating all rocket programs, including ones funded by nation-states.
Starship's fifth test flight in early October was groundbreaking...
SpaceX is why America is years ahead of the rest of the world in the space race.