The small Texas town of Boca Chica, population about 40, a bedroom community with a lot of retirees outside Brownsville, is practically on top of the launch site where Space X is constructing future capabilities of Starship manned vehicles atop Falcon 9 rockets. Residents were offered three times the market value of their homes to move, and most have. In early February Elon Music spoke with Grand Valley TV station KRGV in an exclusive interview when holding a job fair, highlighting why he chose the area. “This happened to be a relatively isolated part of the East Coast. The path of the rocket needs to be safe for the people below it. You also want to launch eastward with the earth’s rotation.”
Residents like Maria Pointer, who spoke with CBS News, are torn. They are living on the cutting edge of space exploration with a launch pad being literally constructed right outside the kitchen window and that’s kind of exciting. The downside is that there’s a launch pad right outside the kitchen window. It’s a coin toss. “Heads is yay, rah, shish-coom-bah, look what we’ve got coming for the future. And then on the backside, where do I go now? I can’t stay here forever.”
For residents the future is upon them, and a remote area of Texas that saw young people fleeing for big cities is now attracting college graduates with high paying jobs and a promising career ahead. At the job fair hosted by Musk Space X is looking for four shifts to be staffed 24-7 by engineers, technicians and construction workers.