Category Archives: Boca Chica Texas

The SpaceX South Texas launch site in Boca Chica Village in Brownsville, Texas.

Photographer: Veronica G. Cardenas/Bloomberg

Photographer: Veronica G. Cardenas/Bloomberg

Billionaire Elon Musks company thats preparing to land people on the moon was too cheap to make a Texas roadway safe, leading to a traffic accident that killed a local man, the victims attorney claims in a lawsuit.

Carlos Venegas, 35, was driving his family home from a beach camping trip around 4 a.m. on July 7, 2020, when he slammed into the back of an idling eighteen-wheeler trying to enter a one-lane, unlit access road to Space Exploration Technologies Corp.s rocket launch facility at Boca Chica, Texas, according to the complaint.

Commercial truckers have difficulty navigating the access road at the southernmost tip of Texas even during daylight hours, claims Tony Buzbee, the victims family lawyer. SpaceX shouldve widened the road, installed safety lighting and installed warnings to beachgoers that there could be trucks stopped there, Buzbee said in the complaint. Instead, SpaceX skimped on safety to push its development timeline, he said.

Venegas died from head injuries, while his wife and three children suffered serious injuries to their spines and legs, according to the complaint, which moved from state court to federal court in nearby Brownsville on Friday. The family seeks more than $20 million in damages.

This was no accident, Buzbee said in the complaint, which also names Dogleg Park, a Texas partnership that owns the SpaceX property.

Defendants are multibillion-dollar corporations owned and operated by some of Americas most successful minds, Buzbee said. It is inconceivable that defendants are qualified to fly rocket ships to the International Space Station but cannot adequately outfit the access points in and around their Cape-Canaveral-like enterprise.

NASA announced Friday that SpaceX had won a $2.9 billion contract to build the first commercial human lander to carry a pair of U.S. astronauts to the moons surface by 2024.

David G. Olveira and Rene Oliveira, two of SpaceXs lawyers, didnt immediately return phone or emailed requests for comment. SpaceXs media department also didnt immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

The case is Venegas v Space Exploration Technologies Corp., 1:21-cv-54, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas (Brownsville).

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SpaceX Drive for Profit Led to Road Crash Death, Family Says - Bloomberg

A tweet from Elon Musk was enough to push one Atlanta man to hop into his car, drive a thousand miles west to Texas and put an offer on a house. The Brownsville/South Padre Island area is home to Starbase, the rocket production facility and launch site of Musks company SpaceX, and the development has propelled the formerly sleepy border towns into a flurry of media and investor attention.

Bruno Zavaleta

Bruno Zavaleta, the owner of Zavaleta Realty in Brownsville, has been inundated with phone calls from both locals and out-of-towners ever since Musk sent a tweet encouraging his 50 million followers to consider moving to Starbase or greater Brownsville/South Padre area for the slew of highly specialized jobs that he promises to bring to the area through SpaceX.

Im seeing multiple offers everywhere and everything going over asking price, Zavaleta told Inman. You hear about Austin, California, Seattle having those kind of markets, but I would have never expected it to happen here in Brownsville.

Located in the southernmost tip of the Lone Star State, Cameron County, which holds both the towns of Brownsville and South Padre Island, is a four-hour drive from the nearest big city of San Antonio, but is just over the border from Matamoros, Mexico.

Prior to Musk setting his sights on the area for space development and the rocket launch, Zavaleta described it as a quiet border town. The school district and customs made up the largest bulk of jobs while most of the people living there were locals with roots in the area going back generations.

But since Musk first started building a base for his rocket production facility and spaceport in Boca Chica, a small village in Brownsville on the Gulf Coast, in 2019, there has been an influx of out-of-owners and would-be investors with an eye on real estate. The interest amplified even more in recent weeks in March alone, the median price for a single-family home went up 14.2 percent to $177,000 while the number of active listings dropped 51.2 percent from the same time last year, according to data from the Brownsville/South Padre Island Board of Realtors.

Brownsville, Texas

Zavaleta, who was only used to working with the occasional out-of-town buyer needing to move to Brownsville for work, started getting calls from all over Texas as well as California, Georgia and even Wisconsin. A local agent told celebrity news outlet TMZ that he had sold over seven homes since Musks tweet and had received calls from investors as far away as Kenya.

Many people have been living out here for a while but it wasnt the last year that they really started seeing that these guys are coming down here and theyre buying, Zavaleta said. The concern that a lot of us have had is whats going to happen next? Are people going to get priced out of the rental market? Are property taxes going to increase? For someone who lives in a $75,000 home, a lot can happen that would very much affect them.

Christine Breeden-Grove

Christine Breeden-Grove, the president-elect of the Womens Council of Realtors Cameron County, said that a number of SpaceX engineers have been reaching out and asking for homes to buy. Because inventory is low all over the country and Texas in particular, it is not unusual to see five or six offers on any house that she puts up within 24 hours.

We were already in a sellers market and inventory was low, but once Musk came out with that tweet, we just got bombarded with more calls from people out of state, she said. Its making it a little bit more difficult for us with our because our inventory is too low.

Musk has a history of making fantastical claims and having them not come to fruition, or play out to a much lesser extent. Just last month, a rocket launched out of Boca Chica landed but then exploded on site. While Musk promised to hire several thousand workers in the next two years, there are currently around 100 job listings on the company website.

According to local agents, it is too early to say just how much of an effect his interest in Starbase and Brownsville will have on the local housing market. Last week, Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevio confirmed that a representative from SpaceX inquired about incorporating Boca Chica Village into Starbase but stressed that there are regulations to follow and sending a tweet doesnt make it so.

SpaceX In Boca Chica | Reddit (RGV Aerial Photography)

But as when Amazon announced plans to open a second headquarters, a mere expression of interest in an area from Musk can send investors aflutter. Bredeen said that builders and developers are already moving in and preparing for the boon.

We have a lot of builders and new subdivisions going up, Bredeen said. Were going to get a lot of outside developers coming in and building homes, so thats a positive for the area.

Brownsville residents had for years, according to Zavaleta, felt a bit of an inferiority complex and friendly rivalry with the nearby city of McAllen, which is where they have to go to the popular restaurant chain PF Changs or larger shopping plazas. The national and global attention has been a source of pride for many locals and a reason for some homeowners to sit tight while waiting for values to rise but also a cause for apprehension that the quiet area could soon transform into something they dont quite recognize.

If you had told me that we were going to get a Tesla service center a few years ago, I would have thought you were completely crazy, Zavaleta said. And now we have one thats about to officially open.

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How Elon Musks Starbase plans are influencing the Texas housing market - Inman

Musk tweeted that he needs more employees, and he is giving $30 million to the community where SpaceX launches its prototype Mars rockets.

Image: iStock/Andrei Stanescu

If you're an engineer, technician or builder and you're ready to move to the Brownsville/South Padre, Texas area, Elon Musk has the job for you.

On Tuesday, Musk tweeted that he's looking for employees at SpaceX, and in less than 24 hours, his post received over 162,000 likes and more than 20,000 retweets. This follows on the heels of Musk announcing he was donating $20 million to Cameron County schools and $10 million to the City of Brownsville for downtown revitalization. Brownsville is the county seat for Cameron County and the quality of schools is always a big draw for anyone with kids.

SEE: Elon Musk and the cult of Tesla: How a tech startup rattled the auto industry to its core (TechRepublic free PDF download)

Musk's tweeted, "Please consider moving to Starbase or greater Brownsville/South Padre area in Texas & encourage friends to do so! SpaceX's hiring needs for engineers, technicians, builders & essential support personnel of all kinds are growing rapidly."

Image: Teena Maddox/TechRepublic

Starbase is what Musk has suggested renaming Boca Chica Village, where the SpaceX launch facility is located. Currently, Boca Chica is a small, unincorporated community in Cameron County.

There are currently more than 1,000 job openings posted for SpaceX, with 109 located in Brownsville, and four positions can be located in Brownsville or Hawthorne, California. The Brownsville jobs range from senior software engineer and a thermal hardware specialist to a build engineer for the Starship heat shield, a construction project manager, apipe fitter, and even a barista, who needs at least three years of experience for the six-month gig.

Activity is continuing to ramp up at the Boca Chica SpaceX facility. The Federal Aviation Administration reported on March 17 that "SpaceX proposes to conduct Starship/Super Heavy launch operations from the Boca Chica Launch Site in Cameron County, Texas. SpaceX must apply for and obtain an experimental permit(s) and/or a vehicle operator license from the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation to operate the Starship/Super Heavy launch vehicle."

Tuesday's posts from Musk came hours after SpaceX's Starship SN11 prototype Mars rocket broke apart before touchdown in Boca Chica.

The SN11 was the fourth SpaceX rocket to fail. The first two prototypes, SN8 and SN9, exploded spectacularly on the pad. The next prototype, SN10, landed safely, but disintegrated six minutes after touchdown, according to CNET.

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Elon Musk hiring "several thousand" people to work at SpaceX Starbase in Texas - TechRepublic

Dr. Michael Pillsbury addresses Elon Musk's commentary on the strength of China's economy and climate plans.

SpaceXCEO Elon Muskhas extended an open invitation to his followers and anyone else interested inmovingto Texas andcoming to work for the aerospace company.

"Please consider moving to Starbase or greater Brownsville/South Padre area in Texas & encourage friends to do so!," Musk tweeted on Tuesday."SpaceXs hiring needs for engineers, technicians, builders & essential support personnel of all kinds are growing rapidly."

SpaceX currently has over 100 temporary and full-time job openings on its website located in Brownsville, Texas.

SPACEX STARSHIP DEBRIS RAINS DOWN DURING BOTCHED TEST FLIGHT LANDING IN FOGGY CONDITIONS

Earlier this month, Musk expressed interest in incorporating Boca Chica Village,home of SpaceX's launch facility, into acity calledStarbase.

Under Texas law, the incorporationprocess is handled by the Cameron County Commissioners Court. Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino Jr. saidthe court was "informed of SpaceX's endeavor" on March 2.

"If SpaceX and Elon Musk would like to pursue down this path, they must abide by all state incorporation statutes," Trevino said in astatement. "Cameron County will process any appropriate petitions in conformity with applicable law."

Musk said on Tuesday thatStarbase is expected togrow by several thousand people over the next two years.

Musk also plans to donate$20 millionto Cameron County schools and another $10 million to Brownsville for a "downtown revitalization."Specific details related to that donation will be revealed next week.

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In addition, Musk is makinghiring investments in the city of Austin, Texas.

SpaceX revealed in a job posting earlier this monththat it is breaking ground on astate-of-the-art manufacturing plantin Austin.According to the posting, the candidatewillhelp produce equipement forStarlink, SpaceX'sglobal high-speed internet service made up of a constellation of satellites, andmust agree to up to 25% travel to SpaceX's Los Angeles-area headquarters until the Austin facility is "fully established."

Meanwhile, Musk's Boring Companyposted several job openings in Austin in November, hinting that one of the company's tunnel systems could be comingto the city.Musk also announced construction plans in July for a second Tesla factory in Austin, which could potentially bring in hundreds of jobs.

Musksetdown his own roots in Texaslast year,after growing increasingly frustrated with California's COVID-19 restrictions. He alsomoved his private foundation, according to a December filing with the Texas secretary of state.

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SpaceX is currently developing Starship, a rocket that will transport humans to Mars and the Moon.Musk said in December that heremained highly confidentthat SpaceXwill land humans on the red planet by 2026.

Other SpaceX projects in the works include theCrew-2missionto the International Space Station, which will lift off fromLaunch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida no earlierthan April 20, Inspiration4,theworld's first 'all-civilian mission to orbit Earth', which is set to take offas early as the fourth quarter of 2021, and dearMoon,the first-everprivate commercial space trip to the Moonscheduled for 2023.

In addition, SpaceX has struck space tourism partnerships withSpace Adventuresin 2021andAxiom Space in2022.

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Elon Musk's open call: Move to Texas and work for me - Fox Business

Elon Musk says hes making generous donations to a Texas county and city near one of SpaceXs rocket production facilities and launch sites.

America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news.

Am donating $20M to Cameron County schools & $10M to City of Brownsville for downtown revitalization. Details to follow next week.

The SpaceX CEO made the announcement after the private rocket companys most recent launch out of Boca Chica, Texas, which is just outside Brownsville, ended in an explosion. Musk has previously said he wants to grow the small town into a city called Starbase

In 2014, SpaceX broke ground on its launch facility in the southeast Texas community and began testing rockets there in 2019, including tests of its Starship prototypes Musk is hoping to one day send to the Moon and Mars.

Musk also called on engineers, technicians and others to move to the area saying he expects the town to grow by several thousand people over the next year or two.

Please consider moving to Starbase or greater Brownsville/South Padre area in Texas & encourage friends to do so! he tweeted.

SpaceXs hiring needs for engineers, technicians, builders & essential support personnel of all kinds are growing rapidly, he added.

Brownsville Mayor Juan Trey Mendez told local KSAT talk of the donations was exciting and said he looked forward to speaking with Musk about future development of the city.

We look forward to a discussion about how this could help our community prosper as we take a front seat to the next chapter of space exploration and innovation, Mendez told the outlet. For years, the City has invested in infrastructure and improvements to capitalize on the beauty and charm of our historic downtown.

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Elon Musk donating $30M to schools, city near his new Texas 'Starbase' | TheHill - The Hill

A Texas city was taken by surprised when Elon Musk tweeted on Tuesday that he would donate $30 million to revitalize it and its schools, after appealing to people to move there to work for SpaceX.

Musk tweeted that he was donating $20 million to schools in Cameron County and $10 million to revitalize downtown Brownsville, home to one of the company's rocket-production facilities and close to the launch site in Boca Chica, which Musk has said he wants to grow into a city called Starbase.

Musk added: "Details to follow next week."

The cash pledge for Brownsville was a surprise to Mayor Trey Mendez.

"Unfortunately at this time, I am unable to give you much information as we are still not sure about any details," he told Protocol on Wednesday.

Mendez continued, "This came as a surprise to everyone yesterday morning and we have not had a chance to speak with Mr. Musk to obtain more information."

In a subsequent interview with KSAT 12, Mendez said: "It's certainly exciting to hear of Elon Musk's proposed donation to the city for downtown revitalization.

"We look forward to a discussion about how this could help our community prosper as we take a front seat to the next chapter of space exploration and innovation."

Mendez said that the private sector has "taken notice" of the investment opportunities in Brownsville, adding that he hoped Musk's capital would help "accelerate the progress even more."

The SpaceX CEO pledged the money after the company's most recent launch in the area the fourth test flight of the Starship prototype ended in an explosion.

Musk tweeted: "Please consider moving to Starbase or greater Brownsville/South Padre area in Texas & encourage friends to do so!"

He added that Starbase would "grow by several thousand people over the next year or two."

The SpaceX CEO moved from California to Texas in December in response to local coronavirus restrictions temporarily closing Tesla's US car factory.

Are you currently living in or around Brownsville? What's it like having SpaceX in the area? Contact this reporter via Twitter or email: kduffy@insider.com

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Elon Musk takes Texas city by surprise by tweeting hes going to donate $30 million to boost the area - Business Insider

What does it mean to be a company town? In the 19th and early 20th century, towns whose fortunes were intricately linked with that of their primary employer abounded. This wasnt a uniquely American phenomenon, either some may recall Fordlandia, Henry Fords foray into municipal planning. In more recent years, variations on the theme have continued including some that bordered on the absurd but the idea of the company town hasnt gone away. As anyone whos seen Nomadland can attest, company towns are still a very real phenomenon.

Reportedly, Elon Musk is looking to offer his own spin on the concept. A new article by Samantha Masunaga at the Los Angeles Times notes that Musk has Tweeted about wanting to create a new city that would incorporate Boca Chica Village, Texas the location of SpaceXs Starship facility.

Musk expressed his interest in naming this new city Starbase, and hes gone on to use the name in posts on social media. Masunaga writes of the potential advantages of this arrangement: In theory, it might help the private spaceflight company attract future employees, foster a political climate friendly to a business thats bound to be a noisy neighbor and even pave the way for the development of the kinds of amenities that might crop up near a would-be transportation hub.

Still, the article also notes that creating a company town is no easy task, especially when history has not always looked kindly on company towns treatment of workers. That said, SpaceXs holdings in Cameron County location of Boca Chica Village currently include 110 parcels of land, according to the Los Angeles Times. That sounds like the start of something big.

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Is Elon Musk Seeking a Return to the Days of the Company Town? - InsideHook

Photos from a photographer show pieces of SpaceXs SN11 rocket now scattered across Boca Chica after a launch and failed landing earlier this week.

The rocket launch on Tuesday was shrouded in fog; neither the launch nor the explosion could be seen clearly. Lab Padres YouTube camera shows how far the debris from the destroyed rocket scattered. The mud flats north of the launch site, a federal protected wildlife area, was covered in metal shards.

Photographer Pedro De La Fuente accessed the area Wednesday to see it for himself.

From a distance, those metal sheets were shiny, [and] you could see a bunch of shiny things scattered all over the place, De La Fuente said.

READ ALSO: Latest SpaceX launch creates taxpayer, environmental concerns

De La Fuente says staff was seen removing the debris and security was keeping an eye on the SpaceX property.

The SN11 explosion comes after the successful launches but failed landings of SN8 and SN9. SN10 landed in February, but blew up shortly after touching the ground.

The latest information from SpaceX says SN11 broke apart shortly after its landing burn was initiated.

Former Cameron County Judge and Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilbert Hinojosa says these continued explosions are a risk to the environment and public.

READ ALSO: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says he's donating millions to Cameron County schools, city of Brownsville

Nobodys given us any guarantee that this is not going to potentially affect the lives and safety of South Texans, Hinojosa said. We are one of the largest metropolitan areas in the state of Texas. The density in Brownsville and this area is high. Something like this could eventually affect the citizens of this state.

Texas Parks and Wildlife says their federal partner, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is working with SpaceX to retrieve debris and minimize impacts to wildlife.

The Federal Aviation Administration also says its investigating this explosion as it has with the past rocket prototypes. SpaceX says its looking for new employees as momentum continues at this launch site.

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Photos show pieces of SpaceX's SN11 scattered across area after failed landing - KRGV

SpaceX boss Elon Musk has said the next major flight test of the Mars-bound Starship craft is imminent.

Starship SN11 is already on the launchpad at SpaceXs Boca Chica facility in Texas, just two weeks after the previous SN10 prototype performed its own high-altitude test.

SpaceX does not typically announce Starship tests until a few minutes before they take place, citing the numerous variables that need to line up in order for it to go ahead.

These include hardware preparations, weather, regulatory approval and local road closures.

Cameron County is yet to issue any public notices for temporary closures of State Highway 4 and Boca Chica Beach, which need to be cleared for safety reasons.

Posting on Twitter on Tuesday, Mr Musk wrote that Starship SN11 is almost ready to fly, while also confirming that SpaceX is preparing the first ever orbital launch of the next-generation spacecraft by July.

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The hugely ambitious testing schedule of Starship comes after Mr Musk ordered SpaceX employees to prioritise its development over all other projects.

The technology billionaire hopes to welcome the first commercial passengers onboard for a trip around the moon in 2023, while crewed missions to Mars could take place as early as 2024.

SpaceX plans to build up to 100 Starships every year, with each one capable of flying three times per day while carrying up to 100 people.

The eventual goal is to establish a permanent human colony on Mars, which Mr Musk claims is essential to ensuring humanitys future survival.

Following the Starship SN10 flight test, which ended in a fiery explosion, SpaceX said the crafts development was progressing well, despite the rapid unscheduled disassembly.

These test flights are all about improving our understanding and development of a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo on long-duration interplanetary flights, and help humanity return to the moon, and travel to Mars and beyond, the company stated.

Starship will be the worlds most powerful launch vehicle ever developed, with the ability to carry in excess of 100 metric tonnes to Earth orbit.

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Elon Musk says Starship SN11 almost ready to fly - The Independent

Eighteen years ago the Secret Service agents guarding President George W. Bushs ranch in Crawford, Texas, received something of a shock.

Thick, low clouds stretched across the Central Texas sky late on the night of March 15, 2003, when suddenly the horizon lit up. The main house shook and rattled as a thunderous noise rumbled across the property. The alarmed agents were roused, but after a few seconds the light faded and the noise ebbed. The remote countryside quieted down for the night.

Several miles away, a small team of engineers and propulsion technicians at SpaceX celebrated what was only the second test firing of the Merlin rockets thrust chamber, the very heart of their brand new engine. Nothing had blown up, and that early in a rocket development program, anything short of destroyed hardware represented a win. As they poured celebratory drinks, the tired engineers did not realize their test stand pointed toward the presidents property, nor that the low clouds had amplified the blast that night.

The next morning, two black Suburbans waited at the front gate of the companys test facility in McGregor when the rocket scientists arrived for work. Some very serious Secret Service agents wanted to know just what had happened the night before. Bush was at Camp David that night preparing for the invasion of Iraq, but agents remained resident at the ranch throughout his presidency. Although SpaceX could not reorient the test stands, the company did gradually begin to get better about warning the surrounding community about future tests.

Unless you lived somewhere southwest of Waco in the 2000s, you probably did not realize that SpaceX had begun to build a major facility in Texas. And yet, those blasts in McGregor may prove to be a pivotal moment for the settlement of Mars, and history may deem them as consequential to Texas history as the Spindletop gusher.

This state, especially Houston, is NASA country. The astronauts live here, and for decades have trained for Moon missions, space shuttle flights and stays aboard the International Space Station at Johnson Space Center. The iconic Mission Control rooms in Houston oversee all of NASAs human spaceflights.

Texans might be forgiven for assuming this is how it will always be, but that may not prove true. In recent years, perhaps due to a lessening of political power, Johnson Space Center has ceded key influence to other NASA centers. The commercial crew program, which is responsible for getting humans to the International Space Station, is now managed at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. And the program to develop a lunar lander for NASAs Artemis Program is not being led by Houston, but rather Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.

NASAs role in human spaceflight is changing, too. Rather than launching its own astronauts, the space agency now buys rides to orbit from SpaceX, with its Crew Dragon vehicle, and from Boeing, with its Starliner vehicle. In this new era, SpaceXs third crewed mission to the station for NASA should launch next month.

The states fading political influence in spaceflight and the rise of commercial spaceflight suggest that if Texas is to maintain a key role this century, it may have to embrace entrepreneurs such as Musk as well as Jeff Bezos, whose Blue Origin has a suborbital launch site in West Texas, near Van Horn. In fact, it now seems plausible that human missions to Mars might launch not from Florida, but Texas; and not on a NASA rocket, but one built by SpaceX.

That certainly seemed improbable back in May, 2002, when Musk founded SpaceX with the express goal of settling Mars. He arrived in Texas only a few months later. Then, as now, Musk craved a hands-off approach from government officials when it came to his businesses. Developing rockets can be a messy, loud business indeed. Rocket engine development is really ugly early on, said Tom Mueller, vice president of propulsion for SpaceX in the companys formative years. It always is. Theres always so many things that can go wrong, and when they do, its usually pretty catastrophic.

Musk found the wide open spaces he needed in McGregor. A Texas banker named Andy Beal had built up the site for his own rocket company, but abandoned the project after running into technical problems with his hardware, and warnings that NASA was more interested in preserving the status quo of launch companies than supporting new entrants to the industry. Local officials were therefore more than happy to lease the 100-acre site to Musk when he came calling in November 2002.

Back then, in many ways, the site remained wild, Texas ranch land. Early on Musk brought his father, Errol, for a visit. The two have always had a complicated relationship, and Musk endured a difficult childhood. But he credits his father with teaching him the fundamentals of engineering. Musk did not realize it, but as he built circuit boards and model airplanes as a kid, he was learning important lifelong lessons. My dad is an extremely talented electrical and mechanical engineer, Musk said. He tutored me, and I didnt even know it at the time. In 2003 the elder Musk lived in Los Angeles, and Elon thought he might be able to help with some construction work at McGregor.

As site manager Joe Allen took the two Musks around, they went into a building called the instrument bay, beneath what would become the Merlin engine test stand. Allen was tidying up the room as the others entered, but as he bent over to pick up one piece of paper, a diamondback rattlesnake hissed back. He returned the paper and calmly told the Musks to not approach the area. He walked out of the instrument bay, found a piece of steel, then came back inside and clubbed the rattlesnake. Errol Musk was evidently impressed. Allen heard him turn to Mueller and say, Youve hired that guy, right?

There were other critters, too. In central Texas, black field crickets lay their eggs in the fall, and then these eggs hatch in the spring. About three months later, the crickets reach maturity, the adults get wings, and each one starts frantically looking for mates. Thousands and thousands of crickets congregate into biblical swarms, which are particularly drawn to bright lights at night. They pile up like snow drifts at doors and walls. According to Allen, the best way to kill them is not insecticide, but Dawn soap or liquid Tide.

The soap suffocates them, Allen said. It works better than any insecticide that we would ever use. But when theyre dead, they stink like a dead horse.

The engineers and technicians fought the crickets every year with brooms and leaf blowers. But the swarms could rarely be kept at bay for long. At least they didnt bite. Black widow spiders are common in Central Texas, as well as the rattlesnakes.

From those humble beginnings SpaceX would go on to test three versions of the Merlin rocket engine, eventually reaching orbit for the first time in 2008. As I write in my new book LIFTOFF, covering the origin of SpaceX, these were desperate days for Musk and his small team of engineers and technicians. They almost failed on multiple occasions, but after finally having success with its small Falcon 1 rocket, the company received a handsome contract from NASA worth more than $1 billion to deliver supplies to the International Space Station.

Since then, the company has raced forward into the future. Last year it launched humans from U.S. soil for the first time since the space shuttles retirement. In recent years the company has also mastered the reuse of Falcon 9 rocket first stages, built the worlds largest booster in the Falcon Heavy, and launched and operated the largest fleet of satellites in the world more than any other company or country.

Through it all, the SpaceX team in McGregor played a pivotal role in testing rocket engines, and even rockets themselves. All new rockets go through the test site for pre-launch firings to ensure their readiness for space. In recent years the company has expanded its presence in Texas. It now has grand plans for the Brownsville area, including the possible incorporation of a new city, Starbase, at the Southern tip of the state where the mudflats along the Rio Grande River slide into the Gulf of Mexico.

Musk's recent expansion into Texas is not without controversy. No longer are his rocket tests waking up a few Secret Service agents. SpaceX's build and test site in South Texas is pushing aside the last remaining residents of Boca Chica Village, and roads to the nearby beach are closed on a regular basis. However disruptive his methods may be, however, he has a track record with SpaceX and Tesla of getting results. And so far, to be a part of what could be the next great leap in space, local and state officials have supported his efforts, and its potential to transform the South Texas economy.

It is here, beneath tents, that SpaceX is building its towering Starship vehicles intended to one day carry humans to Mars at a rapid cadence of one or two a month. Many of them have exploded on the test stand, or while attempting to land. But this is part of the plan. Legendary NASA flight director Gene Kranz famously said, Failure is not an option. But for Musk, when it comes to developmental test flights, failure is an option.

It is very easy to engineer a vehicle to death. NASA and its prime contractor, Boeing, have spent a decade and more than $20 billion to build a single Space Launch System rocket that may fly in 2022. During this process the vehicle has succumbed to paralysis by analysis, in which every possible contingency must be engineered out of the vehicle. There literally is no margin to fail, because it takes so long, and so much money to build a single rocket.

These days, Texas comparative light regulatory touch and go-it-alone ethos are facing fierce criticism in the wake of the winter storm that crippled our independent power grid. And yet, when it comes to space, the story is inverted. The slow-paced, federally funded ways of the past dont hold as much promise as they once did.

Musk has decided there is a better way. The acid test for any rocket is to go fly it. That way, you find the problems, fix them, and fly again until a vehicle is ready for prime time. He believes this is the fastest way to finish the Starship vehicle and get it into orbit and, by 2026, on to Mars with humans. Two decades of success in Texas suggest he may not be wrong.

Berger is the senior space editor at Ars Technica and author of the book Liftoff, about the rise of SpaceX. He previously worked at the Houston Chronicle for 17 years and founded Space City Weather.

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Space City Weather's Eric Berger: Your flight to Mars will start in Texas. SpaceX has the ticket. - Houston Chronicle