The SpaceX fans who uprooted their lives and moved to Starbase
The first time Anthony Gomez saw one of SpaceX’s Starship prototypes take flight, he watched it on a projector. He was far away from the humid Texas coast, where the actual launch was taking place. Instead, he was sitting in his house in Florida with his girlfriend.
A few weeks later, he and his friends went on vacation, traveling through the southwestern United States to Horseshoe Bend, Zion, and the Four Corners. But rather than soaking in the vistas of gaping canyons and jagged cliffs carved out by the Colorado River, Anthony found himself staring at his phone, looking up the times for road closures near SpaceX’s Texas launch site. Road closures were a surefire sign that another test launch was imminent.
Following the presentation, Musk took audience questions. One man, who yelled, “This guy inspires the shit out of us,” wanted to give him a comic book he made as a gift; another woman asked if she could give him a good luck kiss on “behalf of all the ladies.”HECTOR GUERRERO/AFP via Getty Images Inside the main building, a mannequin is dressed in a space suit; in the kitchen, robots have been welded out of pieces of scrap metal. Pictures of Mars and SpaceX’s various rockets adorn the bright orange walls. There’s a puzzle of a Mars colony that guests can piece together. At one point, I spotted a prayer candle with Elon Musk on it, holding the Shiba Inu “Doge.”
I spent the rest of the night talking to them all and hearing their stories. And I was struck by their commitment to Elon Musk’s pursuits. The thing they had in common was that they all loved SpaceX — and they had uprooted their lives to get closer to it. “If you look at the 50,000-foot view of my life, I can see how I ended up here,” he said. He’s had to install stages and art installations in the grueling desert, for instance, with dust caked onto his clothing. And he’s had experience working in tight-knit communities.The nearby Starbase facility has something of a Burning Man vibe, just quieter. Part of the appeal of the SpaceX facility is that there’s very little separating you from the actual rockets themselves.
Like Anthony, Nic was inspired by a launch — the first Falcon Heavy launch in 2019. Before moving to Boca Chica full time, he had studied to be an accountant before abandoning that and going independent, recording podcasts and filming reviews of commercial tech products. Now, Nic was out at Starbase every day, often from sunrise to sunset.
But the downtime is worth it to him because he feels like he’s documenting history. “I think it’s once in a generation where you have the opportunity to do something so grand and so great.” He was talking about Mars and how we might get there. “The window of opportunity to get to Mars is so narrow. People don’t realize how narrow it is,” he said, repeating an Elon Musk talking point. “If we don’t try right now, and we don’t give it our all at this moment, we might never make it to Mars.
And if SpaceX were to leave, it would upend this new life he’s created for himself. “I’d probably vomit,” he said. “You know, it’d be a little sad, but I’d go back to what we were doing before — all the IT work.” That lull hasn’t been great for Anthony’s business. Fewer test launches means fewer people coming to stay at Rocket Ranch. To help make ends meet, he organizes tours of Starbase, taking guests through the area on an old school bus with a Mars landscape painted on its exterior. The visitors are mostly retirees, so-called “winter Texans” who come to the state when the weather is cooler.
“It’s due to a lot of things, but it’s mainly habitat loss due to development,” Stephanie, who works for a Texas nonprofit called the Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program, said. “Things like SpaceX taking over areas where they would normally nest where they winter or stop during migration.” Not only has it made Stephanie’s life more difficult, but she’s noticed a decline in the nearby plover population. The Fish and Wildlife Service, which partners with Stephanie’s nonprofit, backed up her claim. In a letter to the FAA, gathered as part of the environmental assessment, FWS argued that the decline of a similar shorebird, the piping plover, was correlated with increased SpaceX activity in the Boca Chica area.
A prototype of SpaceX’s Starship spacecraft is pictured behind a home in Boca Chica Village on September 28, 2019.Eventually, SpaceX realized that having this community next door wasn’t exactly feasible for its grandiose operation, and the company offered to buy out people’s properties. At first, many of the residents were adamant they wouldn’t leave. But one by one, they relented. There are still a few holdouts, but Boca Chica Village now looks very different than it once did.
Her entire childhood is wrapped up in this area. She was born in nearby Brownsville and lived there as a young child. After a brief stint living overseas, her family moved back when she was a teen. Her parents wound up building a house on Boca Chica Boulevard, which turns into State Highway 4, and the beach off of Highway 4 was her go-to. She loved the area so much that she bought a ’70s-era house in Boca Chica Village in 2005.
Of course, that dream vanished when SpaceX moved in next door. The residents of Boca Chica Village were first notified of SpaceX’s intentions to move into the area in 2011, which was unbelievable to Cheryl at the time. The company and Cameron County promised an influx of jobs to the area. One of the first public meetings held about the plan felt like a pep rally, she said.
After months of dealing with this new normal, the SpaceX letters came. The company offered to buy the Boca Chica Village homes from the residents, finally acknowledging that the disruptions had become untenable. SpaceX offered a price based on the most recent tax appraised values, multiplied by three. Cheryl claimed the price was low because it was an undervalued area. But residents had never wanted to fight the appraisals, to keep property taxes low.
“You know, I have to say, when you can remove yourself from all of the other things about it, I mean, yeah, it was neat to see that,” she said.’s production team, I drove down the familiar State Highway 4 once again, making the turn into Boca Chica Village. It felt as if we were entering some forbidden forest. We all spoke in hushed tones, as if talking loudly would summon SpaceX security even faster.
The whole thing was bizarre, mostly because Nic doesn’t work for SpaceX. Later, he did call to apologize, telling us again he got concerned because he thought we were getting too close to Elon Musk’s house. We really had no interest in shooting there, but that’s not really the point. It was aggressive behavior from a person who, up until that point, we’d only had polite interactions with.If I was being honest, though, it wasn’t that surprising. I’ve seen this fandom for nearly a decade now.
While we were in Boca Chica, Anthony took me to another place associated with Rocket Ranch called “The Outpost.” It was another property he managed — a viewing location, just on the outside of the exclusion zone, to watch future launches. To get there, we got on his boat and traversed the Rio Grande. The sun was low in the sky, the pink and purple hues of the south Texas sky glimmering off the water.
日本 最新ニュース, 日本 見出し
Similar News:他のニュース ソースから収集した、これに似たニュース記事を読むこともできます。
How the federal government is trying to fix the gap between rising rents and inadequate subsidiesHUD's rent standards across the Philadelphia metropolitan area will increase more than 13%, or $172, from fiscal year 2022.
続きを読む »
U.S. pair plead guilty to trying to help ISISA married couple who were arrested in New Jersey boarding a cargo ship that they believed was taking them to fight for the Islamic State have pleaded guilty to trying to provide material support to the terrorist group, federal authorities say.
続きを読む »
NPR report defends ESG, says Republicans are 'trying to score political points'NPR published a news report by its 'climate and corporations correspondent' slamming Republicans as opposing ESG policies for their own political benefit.
続きを読む »
American couple pleads guilty to trying to travel to Middle East to join ISISAn American married couple has pleaded guilty to charges related to their plot to leave the U.S. and join the Islamic State terrorist group.
続きを読む »
‘Stray voltage’ keeps shocking N.J. family trying to swim in poolA family in Brick, N.J., is afraid to venture into their backyard due to getting shocked by mysterious stray voltage.
続きを読む »
Facebook is trying to be Discord with 'Community Chats' | EngadgetMeta is introducing a new way for Facebook’s nearly 3 billion users to connect with one another..
続きを読む »