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At the end of 2018, a local resident of Boca Chica shared an image of a new structure at
the SpaceX site.
Most people assumed that this was nothing more than a new water tower.
But after rounds of speculation, SpaceX revealed that this structure was actually the beginnings
of Starship.
At the time, SpaceX’s activity down in Boca Chica was extremely quiet.
Their entire facility consisted of a small tent at the build site and a pile of dirt
at the launch site.
There were only a handful of workers and no one really knew how important Boca Chica would
be for Starship’s development.
After all, most people were expecting Starship to be manufactured in California, where most
of the SpaceX engineers lived and worked.
So why did SpaceX choose Boca Chica as the base for their Starship project?
Despite the lack of basic infrastructure or a skilled workforce, Boca Chica offered an
abundance of cheap land in an area that was mostly uninhabited.
This was extremely important for SpaceX since testing rockets on this scale would pose quite
a risk to any nearby residents.
But Boca Chica wasn’t completely uninhabited.
Right next to the build site was the main village, which consisted of 35 houses.
This spot was a dream location for retirees and vacationers, but SpaceX was about to change that.
In order to make the area completely uninhabited, SpaceX began the process of buying ou the entire town.
And sent letters to residents, offering to buy their homes at three times the makret value.
Over the next couple of years, SpaceX purchased more and more land and hired hundreds of workers
to begin a 24/7 work cycle.
To this day, the SpaceX facility in Boca Chica continues to grow, with new plans to expand
the launch site and add on additional launch mounts and landing pads.
But the goal here isn’t just to create an enormous Starship factory.
SpaceX wants to build an entire city, and call it ‘Starbase’.
Although Boca Chica is a great place for launching and landing rockets, it isn’t exactly well
known for its skilled aerospace engineers.
Right now, the Boca Chica site consists of some local workers and SpaceX employees that
fly in from California.
Many of these workers are on 6 month contracts and shift in and out from SpaceX’s main
facilities in Hawthorne and McGregor, Texas.
For all of these employees, SpaceX has to spend an enormous amount of money on travel
and accommodation costs.
For their headquarters in California, they have the world’s brightest minds at their doorstep.
Over the last two decades, this has allowed SpaceX to build the most incredible team of
engineers and technicians.
For many young engineers, working at SpaceX is the dream job.
But in order to attract the brightest minds to Boca Chica, SpaceX needs to make the area
much more appealing.
But before we look into how Starbase will attract more workers, I want to thank Private
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In order for Starbase to be a nice place to live, the city needs to have all of the amenities
you would typically find in a city.
It needs to be a warm and homely place so that the families of the workers will also
be happy to move there.
Last year, SpaceX started building a restaurant and a tiki bar right next to the build site
where employees can relax after a long day of work.
This restaurant features an outdoor seating area with a large roof made from old Starship
flaps, a constant reminder of what they are working on.
Many of these projects fall under the guidance of a new job which opened up last year, a
Resort Development Manager.
This job will likely involve designing and planning facilities for their future spaceport.
This will be a glamorous resort for the high paying customers that they expect to have
for their first flights into space.
But realistically, space tourism is only a small part of what Starbase is about.
Unless they can attract the workers, none of this will happen.
One of the more unique features of Starbase will be the futuristic bar placed at the top
of the high bay.
This 80 meter tall building has a large gantry crane which is used to stack large sections
of Starship.
The bar will be placed right above this area, with glass windows and a 360 degree view looking
out over Starbase.
Parts of the floor will also be made of glass, so employees and visitors can look down into
the high bay and observe the work being done on Starships.
In the future, SpaceX plans to open this bar up to the public.
But for now, these areas are only open to SpaceX employees.
But where do most of these employees actually live?
Just 200 meters away from the high bay is a small campsite, home to over 30 Airstream trailers.
These retro styled trailers have onboard kitchens and sleeping spaces for up to 8 people.
Although it seems like an efficient use of space, each trailer can cost between 50 and
$100,000.
For that amount of money, you could get an entire property in the Boca Chica village.
But that’s exactly what SpaceX have done.
After buying out most of the remaining villagers, SpaceX employees moved into these homes and
started renovating them until they felt more like home.
It’s expected that the population of Starbase will grow by several thousand in just the
next two years, so many more homes will need to be built in the area.
So it’s clear that Starbase will be more than just a rocket factory or a resort for
space tourists.
But how big will Starbase actually be and what do SpaceX need to do in order to start
a city?
According to Elon Musk, Starbase will cover a much wider area than Boca Chica.
It’s likely that the unused land between Boca Chica and the nearest city of Brownsville
will become part of Stabase.
Right now, Boca Chica is known as an unincorporated village.
This basically means that no corporation is there to provide services like law enforcement,
fire departments and building maintenance.
In order for an area to become incorporated, a petition has to be started with the local
county and the details need to be approved by the local residents.
In this instance, the majority of the residents are now SpaceX employees, which might make
this process a little bit easier.
But seeking incorporation is a complex process and one that is especially rare for this county,
But SpaceX’s grand plans for Starbase have affected areas outside of the Boca Chica village.
The nearby city of Brownsville - where many employees come from - has seen a drastic change
in just the last couple of years.
As soon as SpaceX rolled into town, the state of Texas gave Brownsville millions of dollars
in public relief, with the aim to improve the appearance of the city.
Elon Musk himself has donated over $30 million to the Brownsville area.
Now that the plans for Starbase are out in the open, many residents of Brownsville are
sensing the opportunities and investing in new businesses.
But for many of the locals, they don’t see it that way.
Brownsville is one of the poorest cities in the country, with many residents living in
poverty.
Although many locals with businesses such as restaurants, shops and hotels stand to
benefit from SpaceX’s arrival, those without businesses will suffer as the economy grows
and taxes start to increase.
For this reason, many of the locals are completely against the idea of Starbase.
But either way, the incredible developments down in Boca Chica are mesmerizing to watch.
It’s no doubt that SpaceX has extremely grand plans for Starbase and the surrounding areas.
Over the next decade, we should see one of the poorest parts of the country turn into
a thriving industrial city with the hopes of becoming the gateway to Mars.
It will be a long and hard journey for everyone involved.
But if the history of spaceflight is anything to go by, humanity will flourish with the
untold advancements that Starbase will bring.
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Thank you very much for watching and I’ll see you in the next video.