So remote that fresh water is trucked in, Boca Chica is - or was - a sleepy, unincorporated little community in Texas. Residents like the quiet life there near the shore of the Gulf of Mexico, at Texas' southern tip, with no shops or amenities.
A new neighbor wanted to move to Boca Chica in 2012, a newcomer so significant that a public meeting was called. SpaceX wanted to build its own launch site there for twelve launches per year of the Falcon 9 -- just a little noise 12x/year.
SpaceX broke ground in 2014 and Boca Chica will never be the same. Residents make a hobby of watching the rocket company and taking pictures. Federal regulations required a level of safety around the site, so checkpoints were set up to stop anyone who wasn't on the list of property owners from getting close.
As you know, SpaceX is way beyond Falcon 9 now. All testing of their new Starship is done here, the one that is designed to take 100 people at a time to Mars. It's much bigger, there's a lot of construction, and the new neighbor is looking pretty burly.
from The Atlantic
(cont'd tomorrow)
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