Elon Musk announced earlier this year that he would create Starbase, a private metropolis in Texas on the east Mexican border, close to the Gulf of Mexico. The city, whose name was revealed by the businessman on Twitter, will include the village of Boca Chica, where the SpaceX base, owned by Musk himself, is currently located.

The small community has undergone a major transformation since 2014, when construction of the rocket launch pad began.

The village has quickly become a destination for tourists, enthusiasts and curious, but the natural environment and the local context have also changed profoundly: in some cases, inhabitants have sold their homes, while the local fauna, which has always found refuge in Boca Chica, continues to be endangered by the debris left by the rocket launch. 

Starbase will be a city where high infrastructure and hangars for building, testing and launching Starship rockets will take place. For many, the project will be a functional way to redevelop and lift the county out of poverty, while others wonder what will change in the area when traffic, noise and construction increase not mentioning the increasing prices that are forcing many citizens to move away.

Changes are not only related to Boca Chica but to the whole region in southern Texas: just consider as an example San Antonio, a city that in the last few years has expanded relentlessly, becoming one of the largest in the USA, occupying its surrounding hill territory.