SpaceX’s headquarters in Starbase, Texas, which sits on the state’s southern tip within the Rio Grande Valley, emerges virtually unexpectedly after miles of lengthy, dusty dust roads.
Earlier than SpaceX arrived, the world was recognized primarily for its coastal wildlife, particularly fowl watching. Locals say there have been just a few dozen properties, largely winter residences for retirees, whereas the closest main metropolis, Brownsville, is greater than 20 miles away on the border with Matamoros, Mexico.
The cities are a research in contrasts. Starbase is an organization city. Its residents are largely transplants from cities like Austin and San Francisco who come not for the birds however for the work. Brownsville’s predominantly Latino inhabitants works largely in farming and shrimping.
But Starbase and Brownsville additionally share sources, with some SpaceX staff dwelling in Brownsville, which has a inhabitants of roughly 192,000, and sending their kids to high school within the metropolis.
SpaceX make use of over 4,000 staff at its Starbase amenities, with roughly 70% coming from the native space, based on firm information. The corporate plans to just about double that workforce to round 8,000 staff this 12 months.
SpaceX’s development took a serious leap ahead on Friday when its shares went public within the largest-ever preliminary public providing. The IPO immediately lifted the corporate’s market worth to greater than $2 trillion and made SpaceX founder Elon Musk the primary individual to be price no less than $1 trillion.
RONALDO SCHEMIDT /AFP by way of Getty Photographs 
Marco Colorado, who owns El Buen Pescador restaurant in close by Port Isabel, Texas, mentioned SpaceX has been good for enterprise, bringing staff from the corporate together with different guests drawn to the world by the rocket launches.
“Each time there is a launch or an occasion occurring, we get flooded,” Colorado mentioned. He famous the SpaceX crowd is straightforward to identify — they usually pull up in Tesla autos.
At Double Day Bar of Champions, a restaurant and bar in close by Port Isabel, Texas, that additionally hosts a sports activities paraphernalia museum, proprietor Mikael Hinojosa has seen an identical surge.
Hinojosa described the SpaceX-driven enterprise as “a brand new kind of tourism.” On rocket launch days, patrons collect on the patio to observe liftoffs, then transfer indoors to comply with alongside on TV because the rockets tear by the sky.
SERGIO FLORES/AFP by way of Getty Photographs 
“It has been optimistic for the enterprise, however there is a draw back to it. In our museum, cannonballs fall over when there is a launch. We do not need to smash the tourism we already had,” Hinojosa mentioned.
Others in Brownsville are extra brazenly crucial of the influence Starbase and SpaceX have had on the local people. Environmental activist group Save RGV (for Rio Grande Valley) contends the corporate’s rocket launches have left close by properties lined in particles, disrupted native wildlife and harmed air high quality.
Etienne Rosas, a Brownsville native who ran for Congress earlier this 12 months in Texas’s thirty fourth district, additionally mentioned SpaceX’s development has triggered a surge in housing costs all through the Rio Grande Valley as staff purchased properties. In 2026, the typical dwelling value in Brownsville is $196,920, up practically 75% from $112,705 in 2018, based on Zillow.
“Whereas SpaceX has created extra financial momentum, there’s been an enormous hole widening in equality,” he mentioned.
SpaceX didn’t reply to a request for remark.
SpaceX’s arrival has additionally reshaped downtown Brownsville, drawing new funding and growth geared toward a tech-oriented demographic. But Rosas mentioned the roles and funding have come at a value to households who’ve lived within the area for generations.
“Brownsville had a sure dynamic tempo, and now that is gone,” he mentioned.
