Parts of SpaceX’s ambitious plans to expand its sizeable presence in Texas were fully aired this week in three very different corners of the Internet. CEO Elon Musk speculated on Twitter about a proposed Texas city called Starbase, while new job descriptions on the company’s website suggested a “state-of-the-art” factory for mass-produced Starlink satellites. And the company made its last move in a protracted legal fight over a piece of land rich in methane that will provide fuel for the Starship.
Here is an analysis of the most recent details.
Starbase, Texas
Musk, who said he is moving to Texas and committed to more projects in the state last year despite California’s pandemic restrictions, said on Tuesday that he plans to create a city called “Starbase” in Texas by launching a new idea on Twitter as your company space expands its presence in other parts of the state.
This footprint, first planted in the state of Lone Star more than a decade ago, is growing rapidly under Musk’s obstinate effort to build a “portal to Mars”. SpaceX is headquartered in Hawthorne, California, but the development of its Mars rocket, Starship, is based primarily on the state of Texas, which is more business-friendly. Local and state incentives and a wealth of top-tier real estate for the construction of reusable orbital class rockets have met Musk’s rapid development schedule.
“Creating the city of Starbase, Texas,” he tweeted on Tuesday, adding in a reply to a Twitter user that Starbase would cover “an area much larger than Boca Chica” – the small community in southern Texas that is now home to SpaceX’s growing test and production facility for Starship.
Creating the City of Starbase, Texas
– Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 2, 2021
SpaceX has made no official effort to rename Boca Chica, other than approaching county officials with the idea of incorporating a city in the past few days, Cameron County officials said.
“If SpaceX and Elon Musk want to go that route, they must obey all state incorporation statutes,” Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño said in a statement. “Cameron County will process all appropriate petitions in accordance with applicable law.”
Starlink Factory
Musk’s Starbase tweet came as SpaceX posted a new job vacancy for remote engineers in Austin, where it said the company is “paving the way for a new, state-of-the-art factory” that will aim to “manufacture millions of consumer devices that we send directly to customers (Starlink antennas, Wi-Fi routers, mounting tools, etc.).
“Up to 25% of trips to SpaceX’s headquarters in Los Angeles, until the Austin facility is fully established,” says one of the job requirements for the position. The Starlink plant would become Musk’s second venture in Austin. Last year, Musk announced that Tesla would build Gigafactory Texas, a $ 1 billion, 4-5 million square foot facility currently under construction. Musk said that “it will basically be an ecological paradise” for the public and the expected workforce of the 5,000-employee company.
The move to California’s Musk appears to be accelerating the growth of SpaceX in Texas, which began several years ago. In 2013, Texas created a Spaceport Development Corporation that has since distributed $ 13.2 million in economic incentives to SpaceX. And the company’s rocket engine development facility in McGregor, Texas, first leased in 2003, is undergoing a $ 10 million upgrade, with $ 2 million in local government grants.
La Pita Wells
Two LLCs created by SpaceX, Dogleg Park and Lone Star Mineral Development, are buying dozens of properties in Boca Chica around the Starship factory. A few kilometers from Boca Chica, Lone Star secured an oil and gas lease from a company called Sanchez Oil and Gas Corporation to revive two inactive wells called Poços de La Pita. SpaceX plans to use the wells to extract methane, one of the two propellants used in its new Raptor engine that powers the starship.
But in true SpaceX style, the situation got complicated. Lone Star’s offer to operate the wells now faces a legal struggle. Dallas Petroleum Group, an oil and gas company that operates in South Texas, says it owns the wells. In a lawsuit filed against SpaceX’s LLCs and Sanchez, the Dallas Petroleum Group is demanding that the court force Sanchez to put the wells back on behalf of DPG. SpaceX’s Lone Star argues that the wells have been inactive for years, making them ready for a new lease.
In a final statement presented on Monday, Lone Star’s lawyers said DPG “is not really planning to operate La Pita Wells” and its process to cancel the Lone Star lease “is part of its plan to extract money from SpaceX “.
“The hope is that [SpaceX] it can produce these properties by re-entering these inactive wells and restoring production for use in connection with its rocket installation operations, ”said a lawyer at Lone Star during a hearing in January. In Monday’s lawsuit, Lone Star’s lawyers noted that SpaceX and its LLC “have a unique ability to use natural gas with different economic incentives …”
On the SpaceX careers page, the company is looking for a lawyer who can help “negotiate complex construction and supplier contracts related to the development of space / airport infrastructure”.