Starbase is Elon Musk’s city in Texas for SpaceX employees. Here’s everything you need to know.

Elon Musk hasn’t only made his mark on the federal government — he’s making himself known in local Texas bureaucracy, too.

Residents in southern Texas voted to incorporate the area around a SpaceX complex as the city of “Starbase” in May 2025. The city is designed around the Starship rocket, which Musk hopes will eventually bring humans to Mars. Company employees and their families make up nearly all of the 500 residents.

Here’s everything to know about Starbase’s founding, leadership and population, and controversy.

Starbase has been years in the making

In the late 2010s, Musk decided that Texas was a friendlier place to do business than California, and by 2020 started moving some company headquarters to the Lone Star State. SpaceX bought land to manufacture and test Starship rockets in 2012 near Boca Chica Village, a remote coastal area close to the border with Mexico. At the time, there were about 30 homes there. The company announced it had chosen the site for its Starship program in 2014.

The rocket company needed to make room for Starbase, its new rocket launch site, and tried to buy out the locals. SpaceX told some residents it was “not safe” to live there. Some packed up, some stayed, all while SpaceX employees moved into the area.

SpaceX first floated the idea of incorporating Starbase as a city to officials in Cameron County, Texas, in 2021. In December 2024, the company submitted a petition to local authorities asking for an election to incorporate the launch site as a city.

Less than a year later, that election came to pass. On May 3, 2025, residents around the SpaceX complex voted almost unanimously to incorporate the area as the city of Starbase. The final tally came out to 212 votes in favor to 6 against, according to county election data.

SpaceX employees lead Starbase

Now, around 500 people live in Starbase, most of whom are families of the about 260 SpaceX employees who are residents. Musk has a home in Starbase. In 2021, he said on X that his primary residence is a “~$50k house in Boca Chica / Starbase that I rent from SpaceX.” He is also registered to vote in the area and posted a picture of himself voting in Cameron County ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

Most of the more than 3,000 people who work out of Starbase commute each day in and drive past a nine-foot golden bust of Musk on their way into the facility.

Starbase’s elected officials are all current or former SpaceX staff. Bobby Peden ran unopposed for mayor and got 216 votes. He has been at SpaceX for more than 12 years and is currently the “VP – Texas Test & Launch,” according to his LinkedIn.

Jordan Buss and Jenna Petrzelka are commissioners. They serve as SpaceX’s senior director of environmental health and safety and former operations engineering manager, respectively. According to the city’s website, Buss joined SpaceX in 2023, and Petrzelka in 2012.

The city is relatively small

The city is only about 1.5 square miles. A housing shortage is proving to be an issue for SpaceX, as hundreds of workers are trying to move into the area to work on the company’s Starship program. Texas State Highway 4 is the only road that runs to and through Starbase, according to a map of the city on Cameron County’s website.

The Starbase city commission now controls zoning rules and building permits that were previously controlled by Cameron County. The city’s website includes links to city commission meetings.

Starbase is, according to Space’s website, where “development, manufacturing, testing, and launch of SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy rocket — collectively referred to as Starship — takes place.”

In a letter to residents posted on the site on June 23, 2025, the city commissioners said they had approved more than 100 residential and commercial building permits and designated May 29 as Starbase Day.

Some local residents have objected

Incorporating Starbase hasn’t been without controversy.

Some environmentalists have raised concerns about potential pollution from launches and explosions impacting nearby water systems and wildlife. Lawmakers denied SpaceX the ability to control parts of Boca Chica Beach and Highway 4 for rocket launches in late April of 2025. Yet in early June, lawmakers ultimately granted Starbase and its SpaceX-aligned leaders that power.

The South Texas Environmental Justice Network, an activist group, has protested, saying that the Boca Chica Beach is “for the people, not Elon Musk to control.” Generations of Texans, the group said, have come to the area for fishing, swimming, and other outdoor activities.

Starbase’s website includes a section about beach and road closures.

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