SpaceX founds its own city in Texas after near-unanimous support from its future neighbors

With more than 97% voting in favor, more than 200 voters in Cameron County decided to award SpaceX its own city. The place where the space company's operations center and launch base appears on the map will now read "City of Starbase."

It is a dream fulfilled for the company's founder, Elon Musk, whose primary residence is in the area. Musk celebrated the news on X, recalling that Starbase started "with one shovel":

The base's official account also celebrated the result on X, stating that building a city "will help us continue building the best community possible for the men and women building the future of humanity's place in space."

The area of about 1.45 square miles thus becomes incorporated land. That is, it has legally defined boundaries and its own government, which must perform functions such as providing services and responding to requests for public information.

For that government, employees of the space company were elected: Vice President of Test and Launch Bobby Peden as mayor, and managers Jordan Buss and Jenna Petrzelka as commissioners. The three were the only candidates for the three positions in contention.