Space city: Musk's employees converge on Brownsville
Brownsville has become increasingly thick with SpaceX employees in recent days as the company races toward the biggest launch event so far at its Boca Chica production and test site, which SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk has dubbed “Starbase.”
Hotels report being full and restaurants busy with the sudden spike in arrivals as the company moves quickly to conduct the first orbital flight of a Starship prototype, employing its Super Heavy booster to achieve orbit. SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell said in June that the company was shooting for a July launch, a window that’s about to close, leaving August a likelier target.
SpaceX just finished stacking a 440-foot orbital tower at Boca Chica that will be used for attaching the 160-foot Starship to the top of the 230-foot Super Heavy, launching the resulting 400-foot-tall vehicle and catching boosters on their way down.
“Congrats SpaceX tower team & supporting contractors!” Musk tweeted on June 28.
Read more: https://myrgv.com/local-news/2021/07/29/space-city-musks-employees-converge-on-brownsville/