The first time Anthony Gomez saw a prototype fly, he used a projector. He was far away from the launch site on the Texas coast. He was in Florida with his girlfriend.
Anthony was admiring the rocket as it flew through the sky. When the spaceship reached an altitude of over 41,000 feet, the engines cut off, and the massive steel vessel plummeted back to Earth, looking like a grain silo in freefall. The vehicle quickly turned upright as it prepared to land, after its engines roared back to life. The spaceship exploded when it came down too fast, hitting the ground hard. There was only a charred patch of Earth left after the event.
The explosion wasn't the real tragedy according to Anthony. Along with everyone else, he witnessed a historic moment on the video sharing site. It was like not being there in person. He had another chance after the Starship failed to land.
Anthony told me that it felt like a pit in his belly. I had to watch it.
A few weeks later, he and his friends traveled through the southwestern United States on a vacation. Anthony found himself staring at his phone instead of taking in the views of the canyons and cliffs carved out by the Colorado River. Another test launch was imminent and road closings were a good sign.
I'm wondering why I'm thinking about this. Anthony wanted to know.
Boca Chica is a small area on the southern tip of Texas where the Rio Grande meets the Gulf Coast. The construction and launch facility that was developed by the company was called Starbase. The primary site was where prototypes of the company's most ambitious rocket had been built and tested. It is a next-generation vehicle that is geared toward launching cargo and people into space. It is supposed to be able to land upright on other planets. There is a stop at the moon. It will go to Mars.
I don't know why I'm thinking about this.
The spaceship hasn't gone to space yet. Launching prototypes to high altitudes and trying to land them again in one piece mimics how the rockets will need to land on alien planets.
The first explosion test launch that Anthony saw in December of 2020 took place in February of this year. He decided to be in southern Texas. Anthony was undeterred despite the fact that the target date kept moving. He arrived in Port Isabel before the test was approved.
The launch was great, but the rocket didn't land in time. The explosion came down at a 60 degree angle. He had caught it.
He said that he wanted to see it land.
Another prototype was tried by the company. The man was in Texas. A friend of his invited him to come see some art he was showing off at a place called "Rocket Ranch." It was an isolated area near the Star base launch site where people had gathered to watch the tests from afar.
After a short visit to Rocket Ranch, Anthony stayed for an entire week. He was convinced that he wanted to make it permanent. Anthony fell in love with the place. I wondered if there was a way that I could absorb myself into it.
He was going to move to Boca Chica full-time.
The spaceship was sent into the upper atmosphere once again after it was launched by SpaceX. The vehicle came down slowly and landed upright on one of the landing pads. The first successful landing of the booster was celebrated by employees and enthusiasts. There was an explosion a few minutes later.
At the International Astronautical Congress in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 2016 Musk presented his plans to send people to Mars. It felt more like a concert than a presentation. Thousands of reporters, conference attendees, and fans were in the auditorium for his speech. I ran to grab a seat next to the microphone when I was allowed in early.
The audience asked Musk questions. One man yelled, "This guy motivates the shit out of us," while another woman asked if she could kiss him on the lips.
This is just a small sample of the fervor surrounding Musk and his company. I have been covering space for nearly a decade and have watched the fandom grow more passionate. At times, it can be hard to deal with. I have become frightened seeing some of the responses to my posts because they are seen as too pessimistic. There is more to the whole thing when you are a woman. A lot of men call me a bitch on the internet. I have mostly brushed it off. It makes me hesitate when I meet a person who believes in something.
Space flight doesn't happen without a lot of enthusiasm and imagination. I have been a space reporter for 34 years and have covered it professionally for my entire career. The fans who decided that what was happening in Texas would be worth upending their lives for were more obsessive than me.
It takes a bit of faith to get into Rocket Ranch. The only road connecting Starbase to the Texas border town of Brownsville is a gravel turnoff. There are a few trees and shrubbery around the road. It stretches out in front of you for a long time.
The ranch isn't ostentatious. The main feature is a dark blue single-story building with an open-air carport and a large wooden deck and stairs leading down to a dock in the nearby Rio Grande river, so close to Mexico that it is easily reachable. There are a number of airstreams and weathered trailers along the riverbank that provide accommodations for travelers. There is a covered pavilion with a bar just a few yards away. There is a hammock between two trees and a supercharging station near the entrance. Stray cats look at newcomers with interest.
The main building has a mannequin in a space suit in the kitchen. There are pictures of Mars and the various rockets on the wall. Guests can piece together a puzzle of Mars. I saw a prayer candle with a Shiba Inu on it.
It was enjoyable. When you think of a ranch, you usually think of deer on the wall, wood panelling, and hides animal rugs. I felt at home in this place because I understood all the references.
When I met Anthony Gomez, he was co-managing the property, and I was fully prepared for that. The vibe was like a family. If guests needed something from the kitchen, they would come in and out of the main building. I was in town for Musk's latest event, but other people were living full time at Rocket Ranch. The people were excited about Musk. He was going to be talking about Starship for the first time since before the epidemic.
The presentation was light on real updates. Musk spoke about the need to preserve the human race while standing in front of the prototype spaceship that is supposed to take it into space. The idea that Earth could be destroyed in one day is something we need to prepare for. Living on other planets is something we must do. The window to reach Mars is open now, and we have the technology to do it. The window may be short or long. We need to do everything we can to go as quickly as possible. This is something Musk has said many times.
When I came back to Rocket Ranch after the presentation, I found Anthony and a lot of other people glowing, all excited to see the presentation. They had just come from a viewing party and were back at the ranch to drink and celebrate.
I talked to them all and heard their stories. They were committed to Musk's pursuit. The thing they all had in common was that they all loved the company.
Anthony worked for the Kennedy's in the past. He helped children with disabilities when he was an employee of a nonprofits. It wasn't a thing for a long time. He was employed in marketing, broadcasting, and IT. He eventually found himself in the Burning Man community. He traveled to many festivals to set up installations and stages.
It ended about a year and a half ago, when the Pandemic hit. He lived between Miami and Jacksonville, restoring his car and building a wedding bar for a friend. He began working with 3D modeling to create sex toys.
He said it was his way of making people happy. I think it was the best I could do.
Anthony's days are not the same. He lives with the upkeep of Rocket Ranch. A lot of maintenance is required on the property. He cuts the grass after a rain or takes the trash to the dump. Anthony said that nature is trying to assert its dominance. The drive to get the mail is three miles.
He said that he could see how he ended up here. He had to put up stages and art installations in the desert with dust on his clothes. He has worked in tight-knit communities.
In our other circles, we are kind of out of place.
There is something of a Burning Man vibe to the nearby Star Base facility. The appeal of the facility is that there is very little separation between you and the rockets themselves. The rocket garden is located next to the production site and pays homage to the past. The one that was landed is one of the ones that became obsolete when they were built.
The launch complex is two miles away from the production site. The launch pad and tower are open to the public. The complex is just a stone's throw from the Gulf of Mexico and a public beach. The road is an homage to the expansion of the company in Boca Chica, which has no other way to travel through the area. Access to the beach for locals is prevented when the road is closed for a test or launch.
SpaceX didn't reply to the request.
Rocket Ranch is one of the closest places to stay near the Starbase facility. Anthony sees Rocket Ranch as an artistic hub and a refuge for SpaceX fans. He said that they are kind of out of place in other circles. People that liked this stuff were made fun of. We have a place where we can share it.
Some people who were between jobs offered to help out with the day-to- day tasks. The others were there to document what was happening. Some wanted to be around like- minded people. People who don't have a family nearby are able to go to this orphanage. They don't have anyone to hang out with. Anthony said they're their friends.
Nic Ansuini is a photographer for NASA Spaceflight.com, which has no affiliation with NASA. There were cameras trained on the launch complex and production site when the website went all in on Star base. NASASpaceflight.com was recording a big test.
Nic was inspired by a launch. Before moving to Boca Chica, he studied to be an accountant and went independent to record and film reviews of tech products. Nic was out at Starbase all the time.
Nic thought he would be down here for a while. I was enamored by the scale of it all. I couldn't leave it. Nic camped on the beach near the launch complex for a week. The sight of rockets being assembled before his eyes was life changing. The Starship prototype rocket was assembled on the Super Heavy in less than a minute. Nic said that he had never felt like he had to give up everything he was doing. I was the one who got that done for me.
He lived in his car on the beach for a couple of months after moving to Texas. The only thing he did was document it. I used to go to Brownsville once a day to get some food and take a bathroom break. He tried to keep his trips to town low. I didn't want to leave.
He says he lost 100 pounds because he didn't eat. One day I was eating a snack that I had made and I was wondering when I had last eaten it. Did it happen yesterday? It wasn't yesterday. The day was Monday. He said it wasn't Monday because Sunday evening was the last time he ate.
Nic said that it never got redundant. The site looks the same over and over again. He looks for new angles. He has never seen a bird fly at a certain height. He can shoot reflections of the rockets in puddles if it rained the night before.
He feels like he is documenting history when he is not working. It is once in a generation where you have the chance to do something grand. He talked about how we could get to Mars. The chance of getting to Mars is very small. He said that people don't realize how small it is. We might not make it to Mars if we don't try now.
It's not all fans of the space program. It was an operation that changed the course of Louis Balderas finances. LabPadre is the account that Louis is known by. Louis has been in the area for the last two decades, and he has seen two different types of Boca Chicas.
I work if I don't sleep. Every facet of my life has been taken by the company.
He said that the area used to be a wasteland. There wasn't anything out here. You would be lucky if you saw one car drive once an hour.
Most of the work on South Padre and nearby Port Isabel is taken care of by Louis' IT company. He changed his life because of the increased activity on his site. He had used livestream cameras to film concerts and crowds during spring break. His channel didn't get a lot of attention before. He decided to change his location. He denied that he advertised. I had thousands of people watching when I pointed the camera in this direction.
His experiment at Star base turned into a full-time job as his subscriber count grew to more than 200,000. Some of the cameras are mounted on the ground on nearby property, while others are mounted on cars to give better mobility. Louis drives around the area to clean the cameras, check the batteries, and fix malfunctioning technology, even though everything works off solar power. If someone contacts him late in the night and one of his videos is down, he will hop in his car and take care of it. It takes 45 minutes to get from South Padre to it.
He said that if he wasn't sleeping he would be working.
He has created a new life for himself and leaving would ruin it. He said he would likely vomit. I would go back to what we were doing before.
Things have slowed down. There was a lot of activity at Starbase from December 2020 to May 2021 Travelers and large crowds were drawn to the area by the five high altitude test launches. The majority of the test launches ended in an explosion.
It was all worth it in May. After launching an upgraded version of its prototype to an altitude of over 30,000 feet, the company gently lowered it to the ground. The sight was obscured for a short time by exhaust from the rocket. After the clouds cleared, Starship was still intact.
It was a perfect way to end the campaign. The area has been quiet since then. The focus of the company is to prove it can send Starship to space. There are a lot of obstacles standing in the way. The company isn't ready yet. The company still hasn't finished the testing it needs to achieve ahead of a launch attempt, despite Musk giving optimistic launch dates.
The lull has not been good for Anthony. There are fewer people coming to stay at Rocket Ranch. He organizes tours of Starbase, taking guests through the area on an old school bus with a Mars landscape painted on it. Winter Texans come to the state when the weather is cooler.
The FAA was one of the biggest hurdles. The FAA has been conducting an environmental assessment on Starbase since 2020. The outcome of that assessment could delay the company's ability to launch into space.
Everyone has been waiting for a definitive result for a long time.
Anthony said that everything is hanging on. If they don't succeed, we're all done.
There's an adult in the road. I was looking through binoculars. A woman is doing a wing display. She wants us to leave her nest.
I was able to see the tiny white bird after a few minutes. She was planted in the muddy ground and pretended to be injured. It was a common diversion. She thought I was a predator when I stood close to her nest of spotted eggs.
I could see a band wrapped around one of her legs. The bird had a tag on it. Wilson's plovers and snowy plovers are the subject of a long-term study by a coastal biology professor. They nest on the ground in mudflats close to the beach. There isn't a lot of it. There has been a decline in the population of plovers.
It is mainly habitat loss due to development that is the reason for it. There are places where they would normally nest where they stop during migration.
There are a lot of people in the area who are happy that the company has set up shop, but there are others who don't like it. The vision for the area was much less grand when the site was first built. It wanted to create a private spaceport to launch its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets. The company told residents they wouldn't need hearing protection.
There was a change in everything in 2019. The first prototype vehicle was built by the company. The Starhopper was used to test out the company's new powerful Raptor engine. After launching the machine a few hundred feet into the air, they set it back down to show they could do a controlled launch and landing. There was more to come. Since that time, the company has expanded its facility, created multiple tents and construction facilities, hired thousands of employees, and churned out prototypes for its products.
The transformation took place in the front row. Since 2016 she has been studying the plovers. At least 520 different types of bird species can be found in the area surrounding Starbase. The mudflats where the birds nest stay dry long enough for them to lay their eggs and raise their babies is a good place for the plovers. She liked it.
She said it was her favorite place to work because there was no one else around.
Bilodeau is studying a population of little birds.
It has been difficult forStephanie to work around the development. She can't access the beach due to the closed State Highway 4. She gave me a calendar that she kept track of the road closings. There are red and yellow squares every day up until May. Red is for testing and yellow is for temporary or intermittent closings. There is a red calendar.
The decline in the nearby plover population has made it more difficult for her to live. The Fish and Wildlife Service supported her claims. The FWS argued in a letter to the FAA that the decline of the piping plover was related to increased activity in the Boca Chica area. It is possible that the birds are leaving because of the loud noises from Star Base. When the test launches lead to explosions, it doesn't help.
She doesn't have anything against space travel or space exploration. I just wish it didn't happen here.
During a public comment period held in September and early November, the FAA received concerns from the nonprofit. As part of its environmental assessment, the FAA invited members of the public to voice their opinions. The calls got heated quickly. The FAA was chastised for not doing enough to stop the growth of the company, as well as for not giving it a launch license fast enough. Over 17,000 comments were received by the FAA.
The surrounding wildlife population could also be pushed out. People have left as well. Boca Chica Village, the small collection of homes situated next to the Starbase production site, has become famous for those who have followed the company over the years. The community, made up of roughly 40 homes, used to be a paradise for retirees. Their lives were dominated by construction noise, bright lights, and test launches that ended in bone-crunching explosions just a few miles from their homes, as the space company moved next door.
The company offered to buy out people's properties after realizing that having this community next door wasn't feasible. Many of the residents were against leaving. They relented one by one. Boca Chica Village is no longer the same as it used to be, but there are still a few hold outs. There are mostly brown and beige brick homes that have been painted white and black. People are moving in. Musk lives in one of the houses when he is at Star base.
Boca Chica Village felt like a dark cloud that we just weren't supposed to acknowledge. He got very serious when we finished filming with Nic. He advised against filming in the village. He didn't give an explanation. He warned us not to go.
One of the first people I talked to when I came to Starbase was a woman by the name of Cheryl Stevens, a former resident of Boca Chica Village who sold her home to SpaceX in the end, an outcome that still upset her.
She said she didn't know if she could put it into words. It is just amazing. It is sort of frightening. You keep thinking that you will wake up from this nightmare, but it just keeps getting worse.
This is where she grew up. She was a child when she was born in the area. When she was a teen, her family moved back after she lived overseas for a short time. The beach off of Highway 4 was the go-to spot for her when she was younger. She bought a 1970s-era house in Boca Chica Village because she loved the area.
I wanted to interview her at her old house in Boca Chica Village in order to see how she felt when she returned. She phoned me the morning of the interview and said she didn't want to do it. She was nervous about returning. She offered to speak to me far away from Starbase.
Cheryl has seen two different Bocas. The Boca Chica was an isolated and remote place. She said that listening to the wind was fun because it was noisy. Cheryl only lived in the house for a short time. She would list it for short term rentals when she wasn't there. She believed the place to be a source of income and the place where she would eventually retire.
It is sort of frightening. You keep thinking that you will wake up from this nightmare, but it just keeps getting worse.
That dream was gone when the space company moved in. It was unbelievable to Cheryl at the time that the residents of Boca Chica Village were first notified of the plans by SpaceX. There will be jobs in the area thanks to the company and county. She said that one of the meetings felt like a pep rally.
It wasn't much of a problem until testing and production started in 2019. The company seemed to get away with a lot. It began closing off access to the beach more and more often. The short term renters who were staying in her house were badgered by the temporary checkpoint set up by SpaceX. People started showing up at Cheryl's house, sometimes asking her to leave.
It was shocking when she got a knock at the door at 10 pm. The sheriff gave me a notice that they were going to be testing between 3 and 4 am. If you have any pets, you should not stay here.
She wouldn't get a warning when she heard an explosion or when her home started to shake as if there was an earthquake.
The letters came after a long time. After acknowledging that the disruptions had become intolerable, the company offered to purchase the homes from the residents. The most recent tax values were taken into account when calculating the price. Cheryl said the price was low because it was cheap. Residents didn't want to fight the appraisals to keep the taxes low.
Everyone agreed that they wouldn't sell. They relented after a long time. They increased the price after Cheryl returned to SpaceX with her rental income and receipts. She left her retirement home.
It is hard for people to put themselves in her shoes because they point out that she left after cashing out. She said that if you tried to say anything on social media, you would get attacked. The kind of people that don't have any idea what it's like will comment.
I asked Cheryl if she watched any of the tests since she was so close. She said she saw one in August of 2019.
It was cool to see that she could remove herself from all of the other things about it.
I wanted to see her old house after talking to Cheryl. I drove down State Highway 4 again, this time turning into Boca Chica Village. We entered a forest that felt forbidden. As if talking loudly would summon security even faster, we all spoke quietly.
We saw Nic by his truck on our way into the village. We stopped in front of Cheryl's old house to shoot a video to show how close she was to the infrastructure. We were allowed to film at another house, but we were trying to be discreet. Alex was one of the videographers and saw Nic's truck approaching. He popped out the driver-side window after parking a few feet from Alex.
Nic thought it was a bad idea to film in the village. He burned rubber before speeding away.
Nic was still going strong. My producer was admonished by him for not heeding his warnings. There had been a lot of security issues with the village, he said. There was no resolution to the call.
The whole thing was weird because Nic doesn't work for the company. He apologized and said he thought we were too close to Musk. We didn't want to shoot there, but that's not the point. We had only had polite interactions with the person who was aggressive.
It was not a good idea to film in the village.
It was not that surprising. Over the last decade, I've seen this fandom. The billionaire founder and the mission of the company are very important to them. There are many ways in which that energy manifest itself. It can be scary sometimes.
Anthony told me that everybody down here has come off super culty or something like that. Everybody feels that way, so who cares if they rally around a positive thing that motivates them to do great things?
There are some amazing feats of rocketry done by the company. It used to be that landing rockets after launch was something new. Boeing had been the first private company to send astronauts into space, but it was overtaken by the upstart company. The company is making these human spaceflight missions a regular occurrence.
There are adverse side effects of success. There are allegations of systemic sexual harassment, as well as claims of a strong burnout culture at the company. To Musk's fans, these issues are often written off as a distraction from the bigger goal of sending humans to Mars. The only thing more urgent is the situation.
Anthony took me to a place that was associated with Rocket Ranch. He managed a viewing location near the exclusion zone to watch future launches. We went on his boat to get there. The sky in south Texas was bright in pink and purple as the sun was low.
Anthony was asked about the criticisms. He wants to have an open dialogue with them. He believed that we could preserve this planet while the next one is being pursued by the company.
I really like this place. It's pretty. Anthony doesn't want concrete everywhere I moved here because I grew up in the city. The place is wonderful. I don't understand why I would want to destroy this. I want to make sure it stays that way. He said that he doesn't want to be stuck in a place that he can't leave.
Are you feeling trapped on Earth? I wanted to know.
It's sort of. He said it was clear. He said that they have become used to being trapped on Earth. I think we all know that there will be at least 20 people who can do this. You can't do it because you're not smart. I'm sorry. You will stay on Earth. Don't even think about it. That is no longer true.
One of the biggest differences between Musk and his critics is the idea that he is trying to save humankind. Humans could be wiped out by an asteroid or a dying Sun, according to Musk. The window to get to Mars will close before we put our resources into this endeavor.
I don't want to be stuck in a place that I can't leave
Climate change is one of the things threatening humankind's longevity right now. Without Earth's help, a Mars settlement is not likely to function on its own.
Anthony and the others at Starbase think we should do both. Climate change can be fixed while we race to Mars.
He admitted that living there would be bad. Anthony wanted to figure out how to live on other worlds so that we could one day live on Earth. We could hope that the descendants of our friends and family wouldn't stop. Anthony was surrounded by people who wanted to be on the red planet.
I wanted to know if he thought Starbase had meaning.
Anthony agreed. Many of the people that have become stars of this community were forgotten. A lot of people that are becoming important were not even alive before this thing happened.
It can be easy to judge or not understand if you aren't into space. Then I look at my life. My job as a space reporter is to report on the space industry in a critical way. I think I'm a fan of space travel. I wouldn't dedicate my career to it if it wasn't necessary. I moved to Austin last year due to the Pandemic. I wanted to escape the claustrophobia of New York and eventually have a house with more square footage. I would be lying if I said that I didn't think about the fact that I'd be close to Starbase.
The FAA decided that the facility wouldn't have an outsized impact on the environment after I left. Star base would continue. The worship of a far-fetched idea that was feeling closer to reality would continue as well.
It is possible that Mars will occur in our lifetimes. It is possible that it won't. It's possible it will never happen. You just have to have faith in the future. There is no shortage of that in Texas.
Reporter: Loren Grush, features editor: Kevin Nguyen, lead producer: Mariya Abdulkaf, and director: Alex Parkin.
Cinematographers: Alex Parkin and Vjeran Pavic.
Audio recording is done by Mariya Abdulkaf and Victoria Barrios.
The science editor is Mary Beth Griggs.
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