Boca Chica (Texas)

Coordinates: 25°59′49″N 97°9′6″W / 25.99694°N 97.15167°W / 25.99694; -97.15167
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Boca Chica
A map of Texas showing the location of Boca Chica
A map of Texas showing the location of Boca Chica
LocationCameron County, Texas, United States
Nearest cityBrownsville
Coordinates25°59′49″N 97°9′6″W / 25.99694°N 97.15167°W / 25.99694; -97.15167

Boca Chica is an area on the eastern portion of a subdelta

Boca Chica Beach
.

The Boca Chica area has seen various developments over the course of its history. These include

Mexican land grants, Mexican and American ranches, a battlefield of the American Civil War, a 1920s beach resort, and a state park (Boca Chica State Park);[1] additionally, a small settlement named Boca Chica Village existed in the area from 1960 to 2020. In recent years, the area has become more widely known due to being the site of Starbase, a major facility of aerospace company SpaceX for the development, manufacturing and testing of its rockets.[2] Starbase is envisioned to one day serve as the primary launch and recovery facility for SpaceX's Starship
launch vehicle.

Boca Chica means "small mouth of the river" in Spanish, as the Rio Grande's flow is modest, and in droughts, the mouth of the river may disappear altogether.[3]

The making of the area of Boca Chica

Transportation across Boca Chica has been an important part of the history of the area. A land transportation route existed across Boca Chica in the 19th century, starting at the Mexican port of

railroad bridge were both yet extant in 2013. Both are located within 0.5 mi (0.80 km) of the beach near the eastern terminus of Texas State Highway 4.[4]
: 3–38 

In the late 19th century, much of the arable land on the subdelta

ranching. Historical ranches include Tulosa Ranch, Palmito Ranch, White's Ranch, and Cobb's Ranch.[4]: 3–39  No historical Native American usage is known, and consultation with a number of tribes in 2013 identified no verbal record of native use of the area.[4]
: 3–39 

In 1904, the

truck farming and citrus farming. The new farming endeavors began a new period of prosperity around Brownsville."[4]

The availability of cheap land in the area created a strong interest in land speculation. Special trains were dispatched to bring land speculators to the area and by the early 1920s as many as 200 people a day were coming to see the land.

One of the more notable land speculation ventures was the construction of the Del Mar Resort on Boca Chica Beach. Advertised as being on the same latitude as

US Coast Guard during World War II. As a result of the Great Depression
and the hurricane damage, the owners of the property were not able to reopen the resort after the end of the war.

The devastating 1933 hurricane spurred the Works Progress Administration to take part in the dredging and construction of the Port of Brownsville, a venture that the city had been trying to complete since 1928. The port was officially opened in 1936.[4]

During the years that the ship channel was under construction, a nationally known

skydiving exhibition over the Del Mar Resort on Boca Chica, he jumped out of an airplane in "an attempted manned rocket backpack flight. He disappeared into the clouds and was never seen again."[5] Swan had previously set records in 1931 with the first American rocket-powered aircraft flight over Atlantic City, New Jersey, and the "first air-launched rocketplane flight" in 1932.[5]

The completion of the port and the dredging of the

Brownsville Ship Channel created a new human-made northern boundary of the Boca Chica peninsula. It cut the peninsula off from any land transport routes except from Brownsville to the east, which was also the transportation railhead for Boca Chica to the rest of the country.[4]

American Civil War battlefield

Main article: Battle of Palmito Ranch

The Battle of Palmito Ranch is considered by some as the final battle of the conclusion of the American Civil War. It was fought 12–13 May 1865, on the banks of the Rio Grande east of current Brownsville, Texas, and a few miles from the seaport of Los Brazos de Santiago.

Union and Confederate forces in southern Texas had been observing an unofficial truce since the beginning of 1865, but Union Colonel Theodore H. Barrett, newly assigned to command an all-black unit, and never having been in combat, ordered an attack on a Confederate camp near Fort Brown for unknown reasons. The Union attackers captured a few prisoners, but the following day, the attack was repulsed near Palmito Ranch by Colonel John Salmon Ford, and the battle resulted in a Union defeat. Union forces were surprised by artillery, said to have been supplied by the French Army occupying the nearby Mexican town of Matamoros.[6]

Boca Chica Beach

Boca Chica Beach is part of the 10,680-acre (43.2 km2) Boca Chica tract of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge. The tract is a former Texas state park located in the Boca Chica Subdelta separated from Mexico by the Rio Grande. The park was acquired by the state of Texas and opened in May 1994. The state park land is now managed by the US federal government as part of the Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge.[1]

The portion of the beach north of the current Texas State Highway 4—on what was historically

US Coast Guard during World War II. As a result of the Great Depression and hurricane damage, the owners did not reopen the resort after the end of the war.[4]

An older map of Boca Chica

pass to connect the road from Brownsville to Brazos Island.[5] Storm movement of sands and tidal flats, principally from the 1933 and 1967 hurricanes have closed off the pass and connected Brazos Island to the mainland, although water still exits the southeast end of South Bay and flows beside SH 4 into the Gulf under certain weather conditions, particularly extended days of southerly winds which build up the water level
at the south end of the bay at high tide allowing limited flows of bay water back to the Gulf via the highway cut through the dunes.

Boca Chica Village

Main article: Boca Chica Village, Texas

Boca Chica Village is the name of a small

unincorporated community as of 2014 located on Texas State Highway 4, about 22 mi (35 km) east of Brownsville. It was formed in 1967 under another name as a land development project, and a community of about 30 ranch-style houses was built before the settlement was devastated by Hurricane Beulah later that same year, which greatly affected the progress of the would-be town.[8]

In 2014, the village and surrounding area were chosen by SpaceX as the location for the construction of a spaceflight build-and-launch facility.[8][9] Much of the SpaceX build facility is located on land that was previously a part of Boca Chica Village, while the SpaceX test and orbital launch facilities are located two miles further east, adjacent to Boca Chica Beach.

SpaceX Starbase

Main article: SpaceX Starbase

In 2012, SpaceX named the Boca Chica area as a possible location for the construction of their future private commercial launch site. In August 2014, SpaceX announced that they had selected the area as the location for their

South Texas Launch Site, and that their "control center" would actually be on land within the Boca Chica Village, while the launch complex would be located two miles to the east. Limited construction began that year,[10][4] but more extensive construction activities did not begin until approximately 2018. By May 2018, the site was expected to be used exclusively for launches of the SpaceX second-generation fully-reusable launch vehicle (which was eventually named SpaceX Starship in late 2018), and the launch complex was no longer planned to become a third launch site for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy.[11]

regulatory authority, the FAA—began to request village residents to go outside their homes during any tests that involve loading of propellant fuel, due to perceived danger from shock-wave induced broken windows in the event of an explosion.[12]

SpaceX made an initial orbital test flight of the entire

two-stage Starship system in 2023. The first flight test flew on April 20, 2023, and ended after approximately two minutes when the Super Heavy booster lost control of its engines, while still over the designated flight test corridor.[13][14] The second flight lifted off the pad on November 18, 2023, and successfully achieved stage separation, though both the booster and ship were terminated later in the flight.[15][16][17]

Plans for a new city

As early as August 2020, SpaceX indicated it was looking to build a resort in South Texas with the intent to turn "Boca Chica into a '21st century Spaceport'".[18][19]

In March 2021, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk more formally announced plans to incorporate a new city in the area of Boca Chica to be called "Starbase, Texas". Starbase would include the existing Boca Chica Village, the SpaceX test site and launch site, and more of the surrounding Boca Chica area.[20][21] Starbase is expected to include the land in Boca Chica Village proper—where both the legacy house community and the SpaceX build site are located—as well as the land where the SpaceX test site and launch site is located, and more since Starbase is to be a municipality "much larger than Boca Chica."[20]

By April 2021, SpaceX was referring to the area as "Starbase" on their test flight webcasts, and Musk was openly encouraging people to move to "Starbase".[22] and projected that the population could grow by several thousand people in the next several years.[23] Starbase had also become a common term for the area amongst SpaceX fans and followers.[24] As of April 2021, the company had not yet submitted the requisite paperwork to initiate the city formation process, and The Dallas Morning News reported that the "planning appears to be in the early stages".[25][needs update]

In January 2024, Cameron County and Brownsville officials both passed resolutions requesting the federal government to officially recognise "Starbase" as a place name.[26][27]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Francis, Robert (16 April 2013). "Space port won't harm wildlife if precautions taken". Fort Worth Business Press. Archived from the original on 6 July 2020. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
  2. ^ Baylor, Michael (21 September 2019). "Elon Musk's upcoming Starship presentation to mark 12 months of rapid progress". NASASpaceFlight.com. Archived from the original on 21 June 2020. Retrieved 12 August 2020. at SpaceX's launch site in Boca Chica, there was not much more than a mound of dirt [in September 2018 but one year later] the mound of dirt has been transformed into an operational launch site – outfitted with the ground support equipment needed to support test flights of the methane-fueled Starship vehicles. ... SpaceX is now assembling the vehicles near their launch site
  3. ISBN 9781594854187
    , pages 116–118.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Nield, George C. (May 2014). Draft Environmental Impact Statement: SpaceX Texas Launch Site (PDF) (Report). Vol. 1. Federal Aviation Administration, Office of Commercial Space Transportation. pp. 3–32–3–34. sources explicitly quoted from the FAA document include reference to Garza 2012b; Garza and Long 2012b; Hildebrand 1950; Garcia 2003
  5. ^ a b c d e Wade, Mark (23 December 2019). "The rocketeer who never was". The Space Review. Retrieved 9 April 2021.
  6. ISBN 0-292-73460-3
  7. ^ Corpus Christi National Weather Service (2000). "Hurricane #11, 1933". Retrieved 2006-08-31.
  8. ^ a b Perez-Treviño, Emma (19 February 2014). "SpaceX continues local land purchases". Valley Morning Star. Retrieved 19 February 2014.[permanent dead link]
  9. ^ Wasson, Erik (9 February 2019). "Trump border wall could split SpaceX's Texas launchpad in two". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 31 March 2019 – via Los Angeles Times.
  10. ^ Leinfelder, Andrea (January 11, 2018). "Aerospace talent in Texas Lauded". Houston Chronicle. Archived from the original on July 15, 2019. Retrieved July 15, 2019.
  11. ^ "Block 5 Phone Presser". Gist. May 10, 2018. Archived from the original on August 6, 2018. Retrieved 2018-10-14.
  12. ^ Foust, Jeff (27 August 2019). "SpaceX's Starhopper completes test flight". SpaceNews. Archived from the original on 26 November 2021. Retrieved 28 August 2019. SpaceX's South Texas site is unusual in that people live within a few kilometers of what the company eventually plans to be an orbital spaceport, in a subdivision called Boca Chica Village that predates the site by decades. Residents of the subdivision reported on social media that they were informed by local law enforcement to stand outside of their homes during the test, in the event an explosion created a shock wave that could break windows.
  13. ^ K, Jay (2023-04-20). "SpaceX Starship Experiences Anomaly In Flight - TLP News". The Launch Pad. Archived from the original on April 25, 2023. Retrieved 2023-04-24.
  14. ^ Bergin, Chris (2023-05-03). "Elon Musk pushes for orbital goal following data gathering objectives during Starship debut". NASASpaceFlight.com. Retrieved 2023-05-05.
  15. ^ Wattles, Jackie (2023-11-18). "Live updates: SpaceX Starship rocket lost in second test flight". CNN. Archived from the original on November 18, 2023. Retrieved 2023-11-18.
  16. ^ Josh Dinner (2023-11-18). "SpaceX Starship megarocket launches on 2nd-ever test flight, explodes in 'rapid unscheduled disassembly' (video)". Space.com. Archived from the original on November 20, 2023. Retrieved 2023-11-20.
  17. ^ "Starship's Second Flight Test". SpaceX. Archived from the original on March 7, 2011. Retrieved 2023-11-21.
  18. ^ "SpaceX reveals plans for a Texas spaceport resort in new job ad". TechCrunch. 10 August 2020. Archived from the original on August 11, 2020. Retrieved 11 August 2020.
  19. ^ SpaceX is hiring a Spaceport resort developer for its Texas rocket factory, Teslarati, 11 August 2020.
  20. ^ a b "Elon Musk Wants To Set Up A City Named Starbase Around His Texas Rocket Launch Site". Forbes. 3 March 2021. Archived from the original on 2021-03-03. Retrieved 2021-03-03.
  21. ^ Bendix, Morgan McFall-Johnsen, Aria. "Elon Musk is trying to create a new city called 'Starbase' at SpaceX's Texas launch site". Business Insider. Retrieved 2021-03-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  22. ^ "SpaceX launches test rocket at South Texas' Starbase, breaks apart before landing". 30 March 2021.
  23. ^ Manskar, Noah (30 March 2021). "Elon Musk urges workers to move to SpaceX's 'Starbase' in south Texas". NYPost.
  24. San Antonio Express News
    . Retrieved 28 April 2021.
  25. ^ "Starbase, Texas: Can Elon Musk really create his own city near SpaceX's Gulf Coast launchpad?". Dallas News. 6 April 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2021.
  26. ^ Lingle, Brandon (2024-01-22). "SpaceX's effort to incorporate its Boca Chica facilities as Starbase, Texas, is gaining momentum". San Antonio Express-News. Retrieved 2024-01-27.
  27. ^ Guzmán, Andrea (2024-01-24). "Elon Musk took over a Texas town. Now he wants to name it". Chron. Retrieved 2024-01-27.
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