Latest news with #BobbyPeden
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
SpaceX could soon see five times as many launches from Starbase, Texas, FAA says
The Federal Aviation Administration has given SpaceX the green light to increase its Starbase launches to 25 per year — that is, if other requirements are met. This will significantly expand the development of Texas billionaire Elon Musk's space company. SpaceX was previously limited to just five launches a year. The company had proposed the increase during the Biden Administration, and the final review was announced Tuesday. The FAA said the change in SpaceX's Starship license "would not significantly impact the quality of the human environment." The review was mandated under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires the evaluation of environmental impact on proposed actions before they are approved. Before Starship's license is changed, there are still some pending actions. "There are other licensing requirements still to be completed," the FAA said in an emailed statement to CNBC News. Remaining requirements relate to "policy, payload, safety, financial responsibility and environmental impacts." "Once the evaluation process is complete, the FAA will make a determination to approve or deny the license application," the agency added. People are also reading: Upscale Austin suburb annoyed with Elon Musk's security, parties, 16-foot-high chain fence SpaceX headquarters Starbase becomes new Texas city The FAA's approval comes days after South Texas residents approved the incorporation of Starbase. Voters, the majority of whom are employed by SpaceX, chose to transfer authority from county officials to the city's new mayor, Bobby Peden, and the city council. Back in December, Kathryn Lueders, the general manager of Starbase, wrote the official request to Cameron County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr. "To continue growing the workforce necessary to rapidly develop and manufacture Starship, we need the ability to grow Starbase as a community," the petition letter said in part. "That is why we are requesting that Cameron County call an election to enable the incorporation of Starbase as the newest city in the Rio Grande Valley." — Reuters contributed to this report. This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: SpaceX gets FAA approval to increase Starship launches to 25 per year
Sydney Morning Herald
06-05-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Welcome to Starbase: The world's richest person is making his own city
While the vote will not give Musk free rein to adopt any regulations he wants, city officials will be able to do things such as close roads during rocket launches and build new housing for SpaceX staff. The company has complained of being prevented from building enough housing for the hundreds of workers who want to live near the headquarters. A recent attempt to build more accommodation was rejected by local county officials. In addition to the incorporation, locals elected Bobby Peden, a 36-year-old SpaceX employee who has worked at the company since 2013, as the town's new mayor alongside two city commissioners. Little is known about the town's new leaders, who are all connected to SpaceX and ran unopposed with no campaigning. An X account was created for the new city shortly after the results emerged. In its first post, it said: 'Becoming a city will help us continue building the best community possible for the men and women building the future of humanity's place in space.' Musk is not the only tech billionaire looking to create his own new enclave. Marc Andreessen, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist known for inventing Netscape, and Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, are among the backers of California Forever, a real estate company plotting a new city after buying more than 20,000 hectares of land near San Francisco. PayPal tycoon Peter Thiel was one of the first investors in Seasteading, a libertarian project aimed at building floating cities in the middle of the ocean. Crypto entrepreneurs have also tried to create their own utopia in Puerto Rico. Victory for Musk's SpaceX was widely expected given that almost all the 283 eligible voters in the area were employees and their families. Despite this, the vote did face protests amid concerns SpaceX would be granted the power to shut down access to the town's public beach whenever it wanted. The bust of Musk was last month defaced by vandals. Loading Rene Medrano, who grew up going to the Boca Chica beach, told the Texas Tribune: 'It's just such a disgrace on what's happening out here. There's a lot of upset community people who are seeing there's a great chance that we may lose this beach.' Musk has recently relocated many of his companies and headquarters from California to Texas as he seeks out more favourable regulation in the Republican-run state. He recently bought a $US35 million ($54 million) compound in Texas, which is designed to house 11 of his 13 children by different mothers. County officials will canvass the results of the vote in the next fortnight before the official incorporation is declared by a judge. However, Remi Garza, the elections administrator for Cameron County, said: 'It's officially statistically impossible for the measure to fail. Cameron County is about to have a new city.'
CNBC
05-05-2025
- Business
- CNBC
Here are the SpaceX employees who were elected to run Musk's new company town of Starbase, Texas
Over the weekend, Elon Musk got his new company town along the Texas Gulf Coast. Controlling the city are three SpaceX employees, who all ran unopposed. As NBC News reported, the election determining incorporation of the city of Starbase concluded on Saturday night, with 212 votes in favor and only six against. Just 143 votes were needed for the measure to pass. Starbase was victorious in becoming a type C city, which in Texas applies to a previously unincorporated city, town or village of between 201 and 4,999 inhabitants. The city includes the SpaceX launch facility and company-owned land covering a 1.6 square-mile area. The mayor is 36-year-old Bobby Peden, who has spent more than 12 years working for SpaceX and is currently vice president for Texas test and launch operations. Prior to joining the rocket maker in 2013, Peden was a graduate research assistant at the University of Texas at Austin, according to his LinkedIn profile. Starbase has two commissioners, both from the SpaceX employee ranks. One is Jenna Petrzelka, 39, who was an operations engineering manager at SpaceX until July, and now identifies as a philanthropist, according to her application to be on the ballot. She's married to Joe Petrzelka, a vice president of Starship engineering and almost 14-year veteran at SpaceX. The other commissioner is Jordan Buss, 40, a senior director of environmental health and safety for SpaceX who joined the company in 2023. Musk, who has assumed a central role in President Donald Trump's administration responsible for slashing the size of the federal government, began acquiring land for SpaceX in Boca Chica, Texas, about a decade ago. The first integrated Starship vehicle launched from the site, known as Starbase, in April 2023, and exploded in mid-flight. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service soon disclosed details about the aftermath of the explosion, including that a "3.5-acre fire started south of the pad site on Boca Chica State Park land," following the test flight. State and federal regulators have fined SpaceX for violations of the Clean Water Act, and said the company had repeatedly polluted waters in the Boca Chica area. Environmental advocates and indigenous groups have also sued both the Federal Aviation Administration and SpaceX over the company's flight tests and launch activity in the area. Those groups said in legal filings that SpaceX caused harm to local habitat and endangered species due to vehicle traffic, noise, heat, explosions and fragmentation caused by the company's construction, rocket testing and launch practices. A SpaceX spokesperson didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. In a post on X on Saturday, the account for StarbaseTX wrote, "Becoming a city will help us continue building the best community possible for the men and women building the future of humanity's place in space."
Sydney Morning Herald
05-05-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Welcome to Starbase: Elon Musk to get his own city in Texas
While the vote will not give Musk free reign to adopt any regulations he wants, City officials will be able to do things such as shut down roads during rocket launches and build new housing for SpaceX staff. The company has complained that it has been prevented from building enough housing for the hundreds of workers who want to live near the headquarters. A recent attempt to build more accommodation was rejected by local county officials. In addition to the incorporation, locals elected Bobby Peden, a 36-year-old SpaceX employee who has worked at the company since 2013, as the town's new mayor alongside two city commissioners. Little is known about the town's new leaders, who are all connected to SpaceX and ran unopposed with no campaigning. An X account was created for the new city shortly after the results emerged. In its first post, it said: 'Becoming a city will help us continue building the best community possible for the men and women building the future of humanity's place in space.' Musk is not the only tech billionaire looking to create his own new enclave. Marc Andreessen, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist known for inventing Netscape, and Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, are among the backers of California Forever, a real estate company plotting a new city after buying tens of thousands of acres of land near San Francisco. PayPal tycoon Peter Thiel was one of the first investors in Seasteading, a libertarian project aimed at building floating cities in the middle of the ocean. Crypto entrepreneurs have also tried to create their own utopia in Puerto Rico. Victory for Musk's SpaceX was widely expected given that almost all of the 283 eligible voters in the area were employees and their families. Despite this, the vote did face protests amid concerns SpaceX would be granted the power to shut down access to the town's public beach whenever it wanted. The bust of Musk was last month defaced by vandals. Loading Local Rene Medrano, who grew up going to the Boca Chica beach, told the Texas Tribune: 'It's just such a disgrace on what's happening out here. There's a lot of upset community people who are seeing there's a great chance that we may lose this beach.' Musk has recently relocated many of his companies and headquarters from California to Texas as he seeks out more favourable regulation in the Republican-run state. He recently bought a $US35 million ($54 million) compound in Texas, which is designed to house 11 of his children by different mothers. County officials will canvass the results of the vote within the next fortnight before the official incorporation is declared by a judge. However, Remi Garza, the elections administrator for Cameron County, said: 'It's officially statistically impossible for the measure to fail. Cameron County is about to have a new city.'
The Age
05-05-2025
- Business
- The Age
Welcome to Starbase: Elon Musk to get his own city in Texas
While the vote will not give Musk free reign to adopt any regulations he wants, City officials will be able to do things such as shut down roads during rocket launches and build new housing for SpaceX staff. The company has complained that it has been prevented from building enough housing for the hundreds of workers who want to live near the headquarters. A recent attempt to build more accommodation was rejected by local county officials. In addition to the incorporation, locals elected Bobby Peden, a 36-year-old SpaceX employee who has worked at the company since 2013, as the town's new mayor alongside two city commissioners. Little is known about the town's new leaders, who are all connected to SpaceX and ran unopposed with no campaigning. An X account was created for the new city shortly after the results emerged. In its first post, it said: 'Becoming a city will help us continue building the best community possible for the men and women building the future of humanity's place in space.' Musk is not the only tech billionaire looking to create his own new enclave. Marc Andreessen, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist known for inventing Netscape, and Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, are among the backers of California Forever, a real estate company plotting a new city after buying tens of thousands of acres of land near San Francisco. PayPal tycoon Peter Thiel was one of the first investors in Seasteading, a libertarian project aimed at building floating cities in the middle of the ocean. Crypto entrepreneurs have also tried to create their own utopia in Puerto Rico. Victory for Musk's SpaceX was widely expected given that almost all of the 283 eligible voters in the area were employees and their families. Despite this, the vote did face protests amid concerns SpaceX would be granted the power to shut down access to the town's public beach whenever it wanted. The bust of Musk was last month defaced by vandals. Loading Local Rene Medrano, who grew up going to the Boca Chica beach, told the Texas Tribune: 'It's just such a disgrace on what's happening out here. There's a lot of upset community people who are seeing there's a great chance that we may lose this beach.' Musk has recently relocated many of his companies and headquarters from California to Texas as he seeks out more favourable regulation in the Republican-run state. He recently bought a $US35 million ($54 million) compound in Texas, which is designed to house 11 of his children by different mothers. County officials will canvass the results of the vote within the next fortnight before the official incorporation is declared by a judge. However, Remi Garza, the elections administrator for Cameron County, said: 'It's officially statistically impossible for the measure to fail. Cameron County is about to have a new city.'
