SpaceX’s first orbital Starship SN20 is stacked atop its massive Super Heavy Booster 4 at the company’s Starbase facility near Boca Chica Village in South Texas on February 10, 2022
.JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images
By Victoria Lopez,
Published by My San Antonio, 15 August 2024
SpaceX’s Starbase continues to make strides toward a new civilization with launches and evolving technology. One could even say it parallels advanced cities of legend like Atlantis. Yet like Atlantis, it too could find itself fully submerged like that legendary city.
By the end of the century, SpaceX’s facility could be below water levels in South Texas. A coastal risk screening tool by Climate Central shows that by 2080, the Gulf Coast will nearly submerge the launch site. The Boca Chica launch site’s fate is secure by 2100, with the launch pad below the annual flood level.
If predictions run true, all that will be left of the now multibillion-dollar region will be an island of what once was. The submerged region will also include the multimillion-dollar amenities SpaceX is currently building for its staff, such as a rec center, shopping center and restaurant. Roads leading to the facility are also shown under annual flood levels.
However, based on CEO Elon Musk’s aspirations, mankind may very well be on Mars. Musk’s ultimate goal for his astronautics company is to make humanity multi-planetary.
“It’s about believing in the future and thinking that the future will be better than the past. And I can’t think of anything more exciting than going out there and being among the stars,” Musk wrote on his company mission page.
So far, SpaceX has held 373 launches, 338 landings and 307 total flights. Four Starship launches have blasted off from South Texas within the last 15 months.
The Starbase facility plans to launch the fifth Starship in history later this month. The team plans to land its mega-rocket for the first time back at its launch site on Boca Chica Beach rather than the Gulf Coast.
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