The home of Elon Musk’s space company, SpaceX, just gained official city status and an intergalactic name to boot, with residents of the remote south Texas enclave voting to name it Starbase.
The decision to formally incorporate Starbase as a city was made on Saturday by a total of 218 voters, with a margin heavily in favour of the outcome.
The small group of electors cast their ballots 212 “for” and six “against,” according to results published online by the Cameron County Elections Department.
The ballot also named a senior SpaceX representative as the new town’s mayor.
Most of the electorate live in the area and are employed by Musk at SpaceX, the Associated Press said.
Musk — who changed his X handle to “Gorklon Rust” from his actual name on Monday — took to his social media platform on Sunday to celebrate the newly coined city.
“Now, it’s official,” he wrote alongside a video of the remote space centre turned city.
A large bronze bust of the tech billionaire and close adviser to President Trump looms at the entrance to the city. Following the election result, it was vandalized.
Starbase is the facility and launch site for the SpaceX rocket program under contract with the Department of Defense and NASA, and it hopes to send astronauts back to the moon and, someday, to Mars.
Musk first floated the idea of Starbase in 2021, and approval of the new city was all but certain. Of the 283 eligible voters in the area of Brownsville, Texas, most are believed to be Starbase workers.
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SpaceX has generally drawn support from local officials for creating jobs and bringing investment to the sparsely populated area.
But the creation of an official company town has also drawn critics who worry it will expand Musk’s personal control over the area, with potential authority to close a popular beach and state park for launches.
Nonetheless, the election result marked a small victory for Musk following a drastic downturn in his popularity, which sparked huge financial losses at his electric vehicle company, Tesla, as well as a wave of targeted vandalism at Tesla showrooms in the U.S. and beyond.
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It also comes in the wake of his decision to step away from his cost-cutting role at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to focus on repairing the once-revered car manufacturer’s sullied name.
— With files from the Associated Press
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