* Starbase brings jobs, tourism and economic growth to South

Texas region

* Residents file lawsuits over property damage, express

concerns about safety and environment

* Community divided as some benefit from SpaceX, others feel

overlooked and displaced

By David Jeans

STARBASE, Texas, June 10 - The last time SpaceX launched a

rocket in South Texas, charter boat captain Eddie Reyes was

bobbing in a pontoon boat less than 2 miles from the pad with a

group of paying passengers. A blast of flames erupted and

shockwaves rattled the boat while the rocket climbed into the

sky.

The arrival of SpaceX has brought good business to Reyes and his

family. Since the establishment of Starbase, Elon Musk's company

town, his charter boat business has picked up as space fans

flock to the area for a glimpse of launches. Reyes' nephew works

at SpaceX as a welder, driving a Tesla Cybertruck.

But the same rockets Reyes sees lifting his family's

fortunes are also shaking his mother's home. Shockwaves from

launches are cracking the ceiling, loosening window seals and

sinking the foundation. She's among dozens of residents now

suing Musk's company for damage.

"You can't stop progress," Reyes said.

Many of the people in the Rio Grande Valley region surrounding

Starbase - the company town centered around SpaceX's rocket

operations - have arrived at a similar conclusion. They're

willing to ride the wave of Musk's interplanetary ambitions and

accept the consequences that come with it.

While SpaceX's rapid expansion is bringing jobs, visitors and

global attention, it is also fueling lawsuits, environmental

concerns and a growing divide among the 1.4 million residents of

the Rio Grande Valley.

After SpaceX's record-setting $1.75 trillion IPO on Friday -

which will raise $75 billion partly to scale Starship from

intermittent test launches to potentially weekly flights - the

pressures facing residents around Starbase are set to

intensify.

"This company is literally shaking the earth," said Tino

Villarreal, city commissioner of Brownsville, a city of 185,000

people that borders Starbase. "By the amount of workforce it

wants to produce, by the actual wavelengths that are shaking our

soil."

SpaceX declined to comment for this story.

The clashing realities of Starbase were underscored ahead of the

Starship launch last month - the largest rocket take-off and

landing in the Indian Ocean - when contract worker Jose

Bautista, 25, suffered a fatal fall at a nearby SpaceX facility,

an episode first reported by the San Antonio Express-News. He

was the most recent SpaceX worker to die or suffer serious

injuries in Musk's rush to colonize Mars.

On TikTok, a video posted by local policy researcher Etienne

Rosas demanding the company take accountability generated

thousands of likes. A cousin of Bautista thanked him in the

comment thread, adding "my family is in need of prayers."

But others defended SpaceX in response to Rosas, claiming the

company wasn't responsible for the death. One person suggested

that Bautista, even in death, would be able to "see an accident

for what it is." The person, who didn't respond to Reuters'

request for comment, added: "Projects of magnitude like the

Hoover Dam for example always claim many lives and the project

continues. It's the American way."

A spokesperson for the City of Starbase declined to comment.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which is

investigating the incident, declined to comment. A

representative for Bautista's family declined comment.

The Cameron County Sheriff's office directed Reuters'

comment requests to SpaceX.

SpaceX, which didn't respond, has yet to acknowledge

Bautista's death publicly.

A ROCKET LAUNCHPAD IN THE BACKYARD

When construction began on the Starbase SpaceX site in 2014,

Boca Chica was a small cluster of homes along the Mexico border

and a popular beach for Brownsville residents. Now, two launch

sites tower almost 500 feet above the beach and the expanding

neighborhoods of Airstream trailers, tiny homes, and new

mansions.

SpaceX hopes to one day manufacture components for as many

as 1,000 Starships in the town's Starfactory - a 1 million

square-foot advanced manufacturing facility - and the Gigabay, a

380-foot-tall structure for assembling the rockets.

The town has its oddities. A SpaceX employee, Bobby Peden,

was elected mayor last year soon after the town was

incorporated. The town is setting up a police force, and has

discussed opening its own municipal court - in which Peden would

serve as interim judge.

At the local school, Ad Astra, young children are taught to

work "with numbers into the thousands - far beyond kindergarten

standards," according to the school's website. The local bar,

Astropub, is only open to SpaceX employees.

"When I showed up, we had one street with houses, we were

building rockets in tents, and we didn't have water or a sewer

system," said Kathryn Leuders, who was general manager of

Starbase before it was incorporated. Now "you're raising

families, and you're raising children in this community that is

Starbase, that's also got a launchpad in its back yard. It's a

really cool thing."

Like the Mars colony depicted in a massive mural on the side

of Gigabay, the town serves as a potential model for the future

of interplanetary colonies. On a recent evening ahead of the

Starship launch, the streets buzzed at 5 p.m. with employees

streaming from Starbase buildings on bicycles while convoys of

Cybertrucks lined the highway to Brownsville, passing sculptures

of Musk and a sign stating, "Mars Embassy. Future Location."

"I've been to NASA, and you don't get anywhere near

something like this," said Nicholas Poindexter, a pest control

worker and space enthusiast who had traveled from Indiana to see

the Starship launch. "Last time I was here I thought, holy cow,

you could throw a rock and hit" a rocket.

STARBASE BOON TO REGION

Many local officials have welcomed Starbase as a boon to one

of America's poorest regions. An impact report produced by the

Greater Brownsville Economic Development Corporation in March

stated that Starbase has created 5,000 jobs and brought in $100

million in tourism revenue over the last year.

Wearing a SpaceX 'Starship' t-shirt, Brownsville city

commissioner Villarreal pointed out new restaurants serving the

increasingly affluent workforce, in between boarded-up store

fronts and run-down homes.

Musk "has moved at the speed of light, and I think that's

helped Brownsville also really move a lot faster in our growth

and development," said Villarreal. "It's injected a steroid into

Brownsville."

Some local Rio Grande Valley residents initially welcomed

SpaceX. Maria Pointer lived in the region for almost two decades

when she sold her home to SpaceX in 2020 after meeting with

Musk. "We were excited," she said. "I really felt, at the time,

that we deserved the moon as the gas station to wherever all the

Elons of the world wanted to go in interstellar space."

Over time, Pointer has become less optimistic, saying the

town has become less friendly. In April, she went to Starfactory

to film an interview with an Italian news crew, beneath a huge

"X" near the entrance to the building, where her kitchen once

stood. A security guard approached and instructed them to leave.

"It was very military," she said.

Other residents of neighboring towns - Laguna Vista, Port

Isabel and South Padre Island - claim the Starship launches are

damaging their homes, according to a class-action lawsuit filed

in April against SpaceX.

One plaintiff, who declined to speak on the record at her

attorney's direction, showed Reuters her Port Isabel home.

Cabinets sit unevenly, doors no longer close, and chipboard

covers warped flooring she said was damaged by mold after a

shower pipe burst following a rocket launch. She estimates

foundation repairs at about $100,000, more than half the home's

value.

"They're wanting to get to Mars," she said. "But what about

us that are here? I'm here now. And nobody is thinking about

us."