Before its catastrophic failure over the Indian Ocean, SpaceX’s Starship, a towering 400-foot rocket, had launched from the newly established city in Texas on its ninth test flight.

Located on 1.5 square miles at the southern tip of Texas in the Rio Grande Valley, Starbase is predominantly populated by SpaceX employees who reside on property owned by the company. It is adjacent to both endangered wildlife habitats and a public beach.

Starbase is the primary test and launch site for SpaceX’s Starship, a spacecraft designed to be fully reusable. This spacecraft aims to transform both manned and unmanned space travel with its enormous carrying capacity and the ability to launch frequently. Should the development of Starship continue as intended, the rocket could soon be transporting humans and cargo to destinations beyond Earth, including the Moon for NASA’s Artemis program and Mars, realizing SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s long-held vision. However, the local community is concerned about potential negative impacts, such as environmental pollution and restricted access to the beach and other public areas, due to the presence of SpaceX.

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“SpaceX has proven to be a terrible neighbor,” remarked Christopher Basaldú, an anthropologist, environmentalist, and co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, who resides in Brownsville, Texas. SpaceX did not respond immediately when asked for a comment.

Long before it was named Starbase, the region’s beaches, tidal flats, and wetlands held significant importance to the Indigenous Carrizo/Comecrudo people (or Esto’k Gna in their language), many of whom still live nearby as members of the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe of Texas. The area is predominantly Latino and ranks among the poorest in the nation. Since 2012, SpaceX has been purchasing land here, and since then, housing for employees and rocket infrastructure have continuously expanded.

“We’ve experienced significant growth in just the last couple of years. It’s now a few hundred employees and their families living right next to actual rockets,” stated Daniel Huot, a SpaceX communications manager, during a livestream prior to the latest Starship test flight.

Huot emphasized that renaming Boca Chica Village to Starbase allows the company to expand more rapidly, striving to create an optimal community for those working towards humanity’s future in space.

Prior to the rocket launches, local residents had already voiced concerns about potential environmental damage stemming from SpaceX’s operations. At a 2018 press event, Musk downplayed these concerns, remarking, “We’ve got a lot of land with nobody around, so if something blows up, it’s not a big deal.”

The inaugural launch of the 40-story Starship in April 2023 did not go as planned—it destroyed the concrete launch pad and created a sizable crater. The explosion sent concrete and steel fragments over a wide area, sparking fires and damaging protected habitats and public beaches. Ash and dust from the explosion were found as far as five miles away in Port Isabel, Texas.

Environmental advocates are also raising concerns about the potential for increased chemical and noise pollution at Starbase, which could threaten migratory birds and other endangered species in the region.

Despite ongoing community tensions, Starbase was officially established as a city in early May, becoming the first new city in Cameron County, Texas, in three decades.

Only local residents—almost exclusively SpaceX employees—were eligible to vote on the city’s establishment, with 212 voting in favor and six against. The city’s mayor and commissioners, all current or former SpaceX employees, faced no opposition. “Now SpaceX has not only taken over a neighborhood but also the surrounding land, which had been largely untouched environmentally,” Basaldú lamented.

The borders of Starbase encompass State Highway 4, the sole access route to both the city and public Boca Chica Beach. A bill currently under consideration in the Texas Legislature would transfer authority for closing the beach and nearby roads on weekdays from county commissioners to the city officials of Starbase, now that it is officially a municipality.

“We were here first as a community,” stated Suquiery Santillana, a Brownsville resident who has frequented Boca Chica Beach since her childhood. “I’m nearly 50, and now my grandchildren are going.” Her family’s visits to the secluded beach are now accompanied by curious onlookers from across the nation, eager to see the SpaceX launch site. While Santillana appreciates the jobs SpaceX has brought to the area, she wishes the company would better communicate its launch schedules and closures to locals.

Members of the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe also connect their origin story to this once-pristine beach. The sporadic closures due to SpaceX launches, they argue, hinder their ability to engage in traditional activities like fishing and tribal ceremonies on their ancestral land, which have been ongoing for thousands of years.

The level of activity at the site is expected to increase significantly. On May 22, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approved an increase in the annual number of launches from Starbase from five to 25. The high frequency and rapid turnaround capability of Starship could lead to even more launches, which would not only enlarge Starbase’s environmental footprint but also lead to frequent closures of Highway 4 throughout the year. The FAA has yet to comment on this approval.

For now, Starbase is set to continue its swift growth, with plans for additional housing, offices, and rocket launch facilities in the works. Jim Chapman of the local environmental justice group Save RGV (Rio Grande Valley) is concerned that the city’s incorporation might allow SpaceX to bypass crucial regulatory checks. “SpaceX now faces fewer bureaucratic hurdles to get approvals,” he noted. “However, I haven’t seen the county turn down anything they’ve proposed.”

As SpaceX pushes to launch more powerful rockets to fulfill Musk’s dreams of space colonization, nearby residents are increasingly worried about the impact of the company’s activities and its proximity to new natural gas projects, which could pose a serious risk to the Rio Grande Valley communities. A new project is underway less than six miles from the launch site, which is unsettling for many given the potential for explosive interactions with rocket debris.

If Musk’s recent forecasts hold true, Starship test flights will continue from Starbase every few weeks throughout the summer. It remains to be seen if SpaceX will consider the needs of their neighboring communities in their ongoing operations.