Hotels near capacity as several hundred SpaceX employees arrive in Brownsville in preparation for orbital launch – KGBT-TV

BROWNSVILLE, Texas (KVEO) Development at the SpaceX Boca Chica launch site is ramping up under ordersfrom company CEO Elon Musk, in an effortto finish the orbital launch tower and stack thestarship and booster prototypesbefore launching into orbit. Musk has called on several hundred employees from otherSpaceX sites to temporarilyrelocateto thearea until the project is finished.

In the effort tolaunch thefully stackedStarship SN20 and Super Heavy B4 prototypes into orbit,Musk has calledon500employees fromSpaceX sites in Hawthorn, California, Cape Canaveral,Florida, and McGregor, Texas, torelocateto the Brownsville/Boca Chica area temporarily.

Musks ambitious goals to reach orbit by July have been delayed, but supplemental employees have been arriving in Brownsvilleto help finish constructing the orbital launch tower that will support the starshipand booster,as well as the vehicle itself.

While a date has not been set for the orbital launch, a source shared with KVEO that Musk gave them a short timeline of nine days, as of Friday,to have the vehicle stacked at the launch pad.

Employees have been arriving at the Brownsville South Padre Island International airport and booking rooms atnearbyhotels.

The hotels nearest to the site, the QualityInnandAmericas Best Value Inn on Padre Island Highway, told KVEO that they were nearing or atcapacitythis week because of the arriving SpaceX employees.

During the week we dont havethese kinds of numbers, said an employee at the Quality Inn as he explained that they areusually45% bookedduring theweek butare now at 90%.

An employee at Americas Best Value Inn told KVEO that they started seeingmoreguests three days ago and have reached capacity.

However, hotels farther away from the site are not seeing the same influx due to SpaceX employees butare seeing morepeopledue to the time of year and COVID-19 vaccine distribution, as well as migrants from detention centers.

A Twitter page following Musksprivate jets posted a photo of employees arriving at the Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport,last Saturday.

Recently the aerospace company came under scrutiny by the Cameron County District Attorneys office for unauthorized closure of county roads, SpaceX has since responded and opened the road in question.

Go here to see the original:

Hotels near capacity as several hundred SpaceX employees arrive in Brownsville in preparation for orbital launch - KGBT-TV