Brownsville, we have a problem. Or how the city next to SpaceX lives

[zakiyatasnim]

In March, Elon Musk announced that he would create the city of Starbase near the SpaceX test site in the village of Boca Chica. The project could bring jobs and money to Texas. However, not everyone is happy with the changes: local residents believe that SpaceX could threaten the culture and environment. More about the problem below.



In March 2021, a SpaceX prototype starship exploded during a test flight on a beach near Boca Chica, Texas. For residents of Cameron County and the city of Brownsville, the event was a shock. For Elon Musk, it was a standard event, inevitable when building a rocket that will one day carry 100 people to Mars.

He then tweeted: "High performance solves a lot of problems. At france number data least the crater is in the right place!"



On March 30, 2021, the day of the explosion, a stretch of road to the beach was closed. As soon as traffic was allowed, space enthusiasts flocked to the launch site to find the rocket debris and take a piece as a souvenir.

SpaceX couldn't just load the debris onto trucks and drive away. The heavy haul would have caused even more environmental damage. The company had to break up the pieces of metal into smaller, lighter pieces.

Most of the damage was repaired, but locals and biologists were furious. The explosion had devastated the local ecosystem, including birds and invertebrates, and the beach was littered with steel debris.

For Cameron County and Brownsville, Musk’s money is about as valuable as his rockets. The Starship prototype seemed like a bright future, but the explosion was devastating. Musk’s desire to build a spaceport and city means jobs, economic recovery, and an influx of wealth to one of the poorest and most remote places in the United States. But the investment will attract outsiders to the town, oblivious to the rich local history.

From a distance, Brownsville seems to be still in the early 20th century. The only thing that makes it modern is electricity and traffic signals. It was once home to Spanish colonists and generations of Mexican immigrants, and was the site of the last battle of the American Civil War.