NewsElon Musk’s SpaceX gets a company town in TexasSpaceX employees near the company’s Texas launch site voted yesterday to incorporate as Starbase, Texas.SpaceX employees near the company’s Texas launch site voted yesterday to incorporate as Starbase, Texas.by Wes DavisMay 4, 2025, 3:07 PM UTCLinkFacebookThreadsResidents near Boca Chica Beach in Texas have voted to become a city called Starbase. Photo by GABRIEL CARDENAS/AFP via Getty ImagesWes Davis is a weekend editor who covers the latest in tech and entertainment. He has written news, reviews, and more as a tech journalist since 2020.South Texas voters mostly employed by Elon Musk’s SpaceX have approved a measure to incorporate as Starbase, a new city in Texas’ Cameron County near the company’s Boca Chica Beach launch site on the Gulf of Mexico. The final tally was 212–6 in support of the measure, reports The Associated Press.The election took place following a petition that had gained enough signatures by February to force a vote, in which just 283 people were eligible to participate, according to The Texas Tribune. Last week, an analysis by public journalism collaboration The Texas Newsroom found that three in five of those people were SpaceX employees, and per the Tribune, the city will be led by three people with ties to SpaceX.Musk, who first posted about starting his very own company town in 2021, declared victory in a post on X before the vote tally was complete last night, saying, “Starbase is now officially a city.” He first posted about the idea of forming the city in 2021.RelatedFAA faces lawsuit over SpaceX’s damage to local environmentSpaceX faces accusations it violated the Clean Water ActWith the measure approved, SpaceX now stands to gain more control over the launch site. As the Tribune notes, the company has to get permission from Cameron County officials to close Boca Chica Beach for launches, but Texas Senate Bill 2188 could change that. The bill doesn’t mention Starbase, which wasn’t a city when it was written, but would give the power to approve beach closures to a municipality that meets certain conditions, including containing “a spaceport” and existing within a county that “borders the Gulf of Mexico or its tidewater limits.”As that bill makes its way through the state legislature, the federal government is seemingly losing its ability to constrain SpaceX. Musk’s DOGE has worked under President Donald Trump to hamstring federal agencies, including The Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Aviation Administration, whose regulatory authority the billionaire’s company falls under.See More: Elon MuskNewsPolicyPoliticsScienceSpaceSpaceXTechMost PopularMost PopularCheap stuff that doesn’t suck, take 2Mark Zuckerberg just declared war on the entire advertising industryAndroid’s next big feature turns your phone into a desktopJanet Jackson’s ‘Rhythm Nation’ crashed some Windows laptops for yearsFirefox could be doomed without Google search deal, says executiveInstallerA weekly newsletter by David Pierce designed to tell you everything you need to download, watch, read, listen to, and explore that fits in The Verge’s universe.Email (required)Sign UpBy submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.Advertiser Content FromThis is the title for the native ad
Buffett devotees say farewell at poignant Omaha ‘pilgrimage’ do sex