Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and Tesla, has announced that the company's rocket launch site in South Texas will now be known as Starbase, an official city. The announcement was made on social media platform X and was followed by a letter sent to local officials requesting an election to incorporate the area. If approved, Starbase would become the newest city in Texas's Rio Grande Valley. This move comes after Musk relocated his personal residence and the headquarters of two of his companies from California to Texas in 2021. Despite facing criticism, Starbase has been an important location for SpaceX's operations, with over 3,400 employees and contractors working on the development and testing of Starship rockets for future missions to the Moon and Mars.
Following the successful completion of a test that saw part of SpaceX's Starship return to its launch pad, the company's goal of creating a fully reusable and quickly deployable rocket has taken a major leap forward. BBC's science correspondent, Pallab Ghosh, delves into the technical challenges of this feat and addresses concerns about the environmental impact of such a rocket. This development comes after a public dispute between Elon Musk and the Federal Aviation Administration over permits and environmental concerns.
In a groundbreaking achievement, Elon Musk's SpaceX made history on Sunday (13 October) as they successfully caught the first-stage booster of their Starship rocket with the launch tower's large mechanical "chopsticks" in Texas. This marks a world-first in the pursuit of rapid reusability for the company, as the booster completed its flight and returned in a controlled manner to the launch pad. SpaceX founder Musk described the moment as "a day for the engineering history books."