Starbase, SpaceX’s launch site turned company town in South Texas, faces local opposition from residents outside the city limits

Before SpaceX’s Starship lost control and exploded over the Indian Ocean during its ninth test flight, the 400-foot-tall megarocket blasted off from Texas’s newest city. Starbase, situated on 1.5 square miles of the Lone Star State’s southernmost tip in the Rio Grande Valley,

Starbase city leaders were sworn in Thursday and appointed a city manager. On Friday, they met again to approve a loan request to help fund the city until tax dollars trickle in. In an early sign that reaffirms just how entwined the South Texas city is with Elon Musk’s SpaceX,