DID BOCA CHICA LOSE AN ENGINE MANUFACTURING PLANT?

Special to El Rrun-Rrun

Just what did SpaceX rocket mogul Elon Musk mean when he said tat the "challenges of operating" at Starbase at Boca Chica left them "no choice" but to put engine production at McGregor, Texas?

Was it environmental concerns raised by local activists? Or was it complaints by U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department over the disturbance of endangered birds and animals out in the mud flats off Boca Chica?

Or was it Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz's warnings about closing county roads and using unlicensed security officers?

Environmentalists from Brownsville to Washington D.C. have been protesting his ambitious vision to build, test and launch next-generation rockets in this fragile ecosystem including engine manufacturing.

"It's 24/7. The lights are really bright out here at night. It's just constant sound and presence of people," says Stephanie Bilodeau, a conservation bird biologist with the non-profit Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program. "I wouldn't want to be nesting near any of this if I were a bird."

Or perhaps it was retirees at Kopernick Shores protesting Musk's takeover of their village.


Whatever the reason, it means that SpaceX's construction of "roughly 800 to 1,000" engines per year will not take place at Starbase (Boca Chica), but will now be manufactured at McGregor. Or was it just a Musk bluff to pressure local residents and authorities to lighten up?

NPR reported that Starbase employs nearly 1,700 people with a payroll of over $80 million. For a historically poor county where the best and brightest often felt they had to leave the Rio Grande Valley, SpaceX has been a godsend. Musk – believed to be the world's richest person – has been generous when the moment called for it. Within minutes of the Starship 11 explosion – with rocket parts still smoldering on the landscape—he tweeted that he was donating $30 million to Cameron County and the City of Brownsville for schools and downtown revitalization.

Zeke Silva in the posts above stated that " it looks we lost a HUGE OPPORTUNITY. In less than 3 hours his mind was changed and we lost to McGregor. I hope I’m reading this wrong but I don’t think so."

Although Musk did not elaborate on the "challenges" SpaceX faced to establish the manufacturing plant here, it does appear that a huge labor-intensive opportunity flew into Central Texas instaed of hiring workers here.

Until we get a further clarification, we may never know.