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  "description": "Most of the 283 people eligible to vote Saturday are employees of SpaceX or connected to the company.",
  "path": "/voters-to-decide-if-the-texas-home-of-spacex-should-become-an-official-city-starbase/",
  "publishedAt": "2025-05-03T17:19:08.000Z",
  "site": "https://broadbandbreakfast.com",
  "tags": [
    "**Elon Musk's**",
    "official city known as Starbase",
    "voted in the county",
    "popularity has diminished",
    "chain-saw-wielding",
    "Donald Trump’s",
    "spending cuts",
    "plummeted",
    "floated the idea of Starbase"
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  "textContent": "McALLEN, Texas, May 3, 2025 (AP) — Voters are set to decide Saturday if the South Texas home of **Elon Musk's****** SpaceX rocket company should become an official city known as Starbase, fulfilling the billionaire's dream of a galactic dateline for a program he hopes will someday blast astronauts to Mars.\n\nApproval of the new city is all but certain. Most of the 283 people eligible to vote are employees of SpaceX or connected to the company, living on the land at the facility and launch site.\n\nAt the close of early voting on Tuesday, about 200 had already cast ballots, according to Cameron County election records. The list did not include Musk, who voted in the county in the November elections. It was unclear if Musk intends to vote Saturday.\n\n## Want top news about tech, politics, and infrastructure?\n\nFree Broadband Breakfast News every morning, Mon.-Fri.\n\nSubscribe\n\nEmail sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup.\n\nUnsubscribe anytime.\n\nElection success would be a personal victory for Musk. His popularity has diminished since he became the chain-saw-wielding public face of President Donald Trump’s federal job and spending cuts and profits at his Tesla car company have plummeted.\n\nSpaceX has drawn widespread support from local officials for its jobs and investment in the area. But the creation of an official company town has also prompted concerns about expanding the tech tycoon's personal control over the area, with potential authority to close a popular beach and state park for launches.\n\nCompanion efforts to the city vote include bills in the state Legislature that would shift closure authority from the county to Starbase city.\n\nAll these measures come as SpaceX has asked federal authorities for permission to increase the number of launches from South Texas from five to 25 a year.\n\nMusk first floated the idea of Starbase in 2021. 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 midcentury homes.\n\nSpaceX officials have said little about exactly why they to want a company town and did not respond to emailed requests for comment this week.\n\n“We need the ability to grow Starbase as a community,” Starbase General Manager **Kathryn Lueders** wrote to local officials in 2024 with the request to get the city issue on the ballot.\n\nThe letter said the company already manages roads and utilities, as well as “the provisions of schooling and medical care” for those living on the property.\n\nSpaceX officials have told lawmakers granting the city beach closure authority would streamline operations for a company that has contracts with the Department of Defense and NASA.\n\nSpaceX 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.\n\nCritics say closure authority should stay with the county government, which represents a broader population that uses the beach and park. Cameron County Judge **Eddie Trevino, Jr.** has said the county has worked well with SpaceX and there is no need to change.\n\nAnother proposed bill would make failure to comply with an order to evacuate the beach a Class B misdemeanor with up to 180 days in jail.\n\nThe South Texas Environmental Justice Network, which has organized protests against the city vote and the beach access issue, planned to hold another protest Saturday night as the polls close.\n\n_This story was written by Valerie Gonzales and Jim Vertuno of the Associated Press. Vertuno reported from Austin, Texas._",
  "title": "Voters to Decide if the Texas Home of SpaceX Should Become an Official City: Starbase",
  "updatedAt": "2026-03-11T03:29:59.431Z"
}