Elon Musk wants Texas voters to make SpaceX its own town—but it could have dire environmental consequences

When a SpaceX Super Heavy rocket launches at the Boca Chica launch site on the Texas Gulf Coast, car alarms wail, dogs bark for miles, and astronomers as far away as Puerto Rico have said they can see and hear the rocket as it takes flight.

Witnesses have said it sounds like “the loudest thing I’ve ever heard,” with sound waves “whipping over your body; it feels like it’s almost pushing you back sometimes.” At peak volume, it’s as loud as a gunshot, even though it’s 73 football fields away.

That’s not the only impact on this coastal area on the southeast tip of Texas, according to local environmental groups. Birds, animals, and other wildlife have been damaged by nearby rocket launches, claims Mary Angela Branch, a board member of Save RGV, a nonprofit environmental justice group that has opposed efforts by SpaceX to expand and increase launches near important wetlands and protected parkland. SpaceX has previously denied the accuracy of these environmental claims.

“It’s a dead zone now,” said Branch, who has had a home in the area for nearly a decade. “It’s the saddest thing, since it was a very underappreciated area. You’d see herons, ducks, butterflies, birds, and egrets on the tidal flats. There is nothing there now, it’s just brown and dead.”

Another organization, Defenders of Wildlife, has chronicled habitat destruction from falling debris and wildfires. (The organization, which has sued the FAA and SpaceX, declined to comment for this story.)

Advocates like Branch and local environmental groups fear damage could increase when Starbase becomes not just a company facility and launch site—but its own town.  

Local voters—a majority of whom work for SpaceX—will be voting on whether to incorporate Starbase, potentially turning the company’s Texas base into its own municipality. Early voting has already begun, with election day on May 3. A New York Times analysis of the voting population found that most of the electorate are men with no voting history in Texas and an average age of 27. The proposal is expected to pass.

The company has been quiet about the reasons it wants to create what amounts to a 1.5-square mile company town. Repeated attempts to contact SpaceX for this story were unsuccessful. But some local advocates like Branch suggest it might help the company increase its launch cadence and expand its footprint on the Gulf Coast. (The Boca Chica site launched rockets a handful of times last year.) Elon Musk’s work with DOGE and deregulation, as well as the potential for lucrative new contracts with the federal government, might give the company billions of dollars and an appetite for more launches and new facilities. 

There’s an assumption that giving SpaceX control of a town would mean an expansion of the firm and its workforce, especially as the town grows. Municipalities have the right to annex property, which might be used to grow Starbase and add more land for housing and manufacturing. SpaceX had tried a land swap with a surrounding state park, but the company backed out of the negotiations without giving a reason. A Bloomberg reporter speculated that they may have found a different way to expand their operations.

“Cities can have zoning and other authority, but I haven’t thought through how this could impact the area,” said Cyrus Reed, Legislative and Conservation Director for the Sierra Club’s Lone Star Chapter.   

In a letter sent to officials in Cameron County, which includes Starbase, facility manager Kathryn Lueders wrote that incorporation will “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 is already building a $15 million retail complex and $100 million manufacturing and industrial site.

Local advocates aren’t as excited.

“I don’t think SpaceX’s goal is to become a municipality to have stricter environmental regulations,” Branch said. 

Currently, a law in front of the Texas legislature would grant municipalities the ability to close beaches for spaceship launches. The authority would likely only apply to SpaceX and their activities in Boca Chica. It was defeated the first time it came up for a vote in committee, but Branch said it could still be passed before the Legislature adjourns on June 2. Environmental groups like the Sierra Club and the Surfrider Foundation successfully opposed the bill’s passage before.

“These public officials are showing that they are bought and paid for by Elon Musk and SpaceX,” read a statement Josette Angelique Hinojosa, co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, sent to The Texas Tribune.

Branch said incorporation won’t change regulatory oversight of launches, and it’s unlikely the new municipality would be able to write its own regulations. But she’s worried about the likely increase in launches, regardless of whether or not the incorporation takes place: SpaceX has petitioned the FAA to increase its annual launch allowance from 10 to 25, and the agency has yet to rule. 

Expansion may not be as easy as simply winning the incorporation vote, said Neil Carman, the Sierra Club’s Texas Clean Air Program Director. The process would take about a year to be successfully chartered as a new city. But he said that, once complete, the process will likely help Starbase quickly approve new housing. 

It’s a move that also comes with a cost, Carman said. Cities are required to construct water utility plants and wastewater treatment plants, which will cost millions and require state approvals and permitting, and local neighbors in the county could delay the process. That could slow down Starbase expansion. 

But water infrastructure may also be an investment SpaceX eventually needs to make. According to ​​Craig Nazor, a Sierra Club conservation chair, the company’s launch-cooling system uses potable water imported from nearby Brownsville. It will need to expand to meet more frequent launches. Doing so may be easier with local government control.

“Building this and a sewer system will be an environmental challenge in the area,” Nazor said. “Controlling the road, once jurisdiction is established, coupled with the increase in launches, will also likely permit them to close the road at other times, as needed, when moving equipment to the launchpad, which uses the same road that provides access to the beach.”

Branch sees this incorporation vote as a larger effort by SpaceX and other companies to build more spaceports along undeveloped parts of the Texas coast. She’s worried more expansion, and a larger SpaceX foothold on the coast, will only lead to more environmental degradation. 

“They want to privatize our beach, and close us off,” Branch said.