SpaceX headquarters in Texas, which is now officially the city of Starbase Miguel Roberts/The Brownsville Herald via AP The last time SpaceX launched a rocket in South Texas, boat captain Eddie Reyes was less than 2 miles from the pad with a group of passengers. A burst of flame erupted, and shockwaves shook the vessel as the rocket soared into the sky. The arrival of SpaceX brought good business for Reyes and his family. Since the creation of Starbase, Elon Musk's city-state, the boat rental business has prospered, with the arrival of tourists interested in following the launches. Reyes' nephew works at SpaceX as a welder and drives a Tesla Cybertruck. But the same rockets that boost the family's income would also be causing damage to Reyes' mother's home. According to him, the shock waves from the launches cracked the ceiling, loosened the window seals and are compromising the structure of the residence. He is among dozens of residents suing Musk's company for losses. “You can’t stop progress,” Reyes said. Now on g1 Many residents of the Rio Grande Valley, around Starbase — a city centered on SpaceX operations — came to a similar conclusion. They are willing to jump on the bandwagon of Musk's interplanetary ambitions and accept the consequences that come with it. While SpaceX's rapid expansion brings jobs, visitors and global attention, it has also sparked lawsuits, environmental concerns and a growing divide among the Rio Grande Valley's 1.4 million residents. On the eve of SpaceX's initial public offering (IPO) — which aims to raise US$75 billion, the largest amount ever obtained in an offering like this — the pressures faced by residents around Starbase tend to intensify. “This company is literally shaking the earth,” said Tino Villarreal, city commissioner of Brownsville, a city of 185,000 that borders Starbase. “For the amount of manpower it intends to generate, for the frequency waves that are really shaking our soil.” SpaceX declined to comment to Reuters for this story. The differing views on Starbase became even more evident before Starship's launch last month, when 25-year-old contract worker José Bautista died after suffering a fall at a nearby SpaceX facility. The case adds to other episodes involving deaths or serious injuries of workers linked to the company. On TikTok, a video published by public policy researcher Etienne Rosas, demanding that the company take responsibility for the case, accumulated thousands of likes. A cousin of Bautista thanked him in the comments and wrote: “My family needs prayers.” Other users, however, came to SpaceX's defense, stating that the company would not be responsible for the death. One of them even said that Bautista, even dead, would be able to “see the accident for what it is”. The comment, made by a user who did not respond to Reuters' request for comment, added: "Projects of great magnitude, like the Hoover Dam, always take lives — and yet they continue. It's the American way." A spokesperson for the city of Starbase declined to comment. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), responsible for investigating the case, also did not comment. A representative for Bautista's family also declined to comment. The Cameron County Sheriff's Office referred Reuters' requests for comment to SpaceX. SpaceX did not respond to questions and has not yet publicly acknowledged Bautista's death. Starbase transforms region in Texas When construction of the SpaceX base began in 2014, Boca Chica was a small collection of houses on the border with Mexico and a popular beach among Brownsville residents. Now, two launch pads rise nearly 500 feet above the beach and booming neighborhoods of Airstream trailers, tiny homes and new mansions. SpaceX plans to eventually manufacture components for up to 1,000 Starship rockets at the city's Starfactory – a 93,000-square-meter advanced manufacturing facility – and at Gigabay, a 116-meter-tall structure for assembling the rockets. The city has its peculiarities. A SpaceX employee, Bobby Peden, was elected mayor last year, shortly after the city was formalized. The city is creating a police force and has discussed the possibility of opening its own municipal court — in which Peden would serve as acting judge. At the local school, Ad Astra, young children learn to deal with "numbers in the thousands – far beyond kindergarten standards," according to the school's website. The local bar, Astropub, is only open to SpaceX employees. “When I arrived, we only had one street with houses, we built rockets in tents, and we had no water or sewage system,” said Kathryn Leuders, who was general manager of Starbase before it incorporated. Now, "you raise families and raise children in this community that is Starbase, which also has a launch pad in the backyard. It's really something." Much like the colony on Mars depicted in a massive mural on the side of the Gigabay, the city serves as a potential model for the future of interplanetary colonies. On a recent night, before Starship's launch, the streets were buzzing with employees leaving Starbase buildings on bicycles, while convoys of Cybertrucks lined the highway to Brownsville, passing sculptures of Musk and a sign that read: "Embassy on Mars. Future Location." “I've been to NASA, and you don't come close to something like this,” said Nicholas Poindexter, a pest controller and space enthusiast who traveled from Indiana to see the Starship launch. “The last time I was here, I thought, ‘Wow, you could throw a rock and hit a rocket.’” Economic impact divides residents Many local leaders see Starbase as an opportunity for one of the poorest regions in the United States. An impact report produced by the Greater Brownsville Economic Development Corporation in March said Starbase created 5,000 jobs and generated $100 million in tourism revenue last year. Wearing a SpaceX T-shirt with a Starship on it, Brownsville Councilman Villarreal pointed to new restaurants serving an increasingly affluent workforce amid stores with boarded-up windows and doors and dilapidated homes. Musk “acted at lightning speed, and I think that helped Brownsville grow and develop much faster,” Villarreal said. “It was like injecting Brownsville with a steroid.” Some Rio Grande Valley residents initially welcomed SpaceX. Maria Pointer lived in the region for almost two decades until she sold her home to SpaceX in 2020, after meeting with Musk. “We were excited,” she said. "At the time, I really felt that we deserved the Moon as a starting point for all the Elons in the world who wanted to go into interstellar space." Over time, Pointer became less optimistic and began to see the region as less welcoming. In April, she went to Starfactory to record an interview with an Italian news team, under a huge “X” near the building's entrance, where her kitchen was located. A security guard approached and ordered them to leave. “It was very military,” she said. Other residents of neighboring cities — Laguna Vista, Port Isabel and South Padre Island — claim that Starship launches are damaging their homes, according to a class action lawsuit filed in April against SpaceX. One of the plaintiffs, who preferred to remain anonymous at the request of her lawyer, showed Reuters her home in Port Isabel. The cabinets are uneven, the doors don't close and wooden boards cover the deformed floor - which, according to her, was damaged by mold after a shower pipe burst after a rocket launch. She estimates foundation repairs will cost about $100,000, more than half the value of the home. “They want to get to Mars,” she said. "But what about us who are here? I'm here now. And no one is thinking about us."