SpaceX Will Launch Their Rockets From the Texas Coast

T-minus 10 seconds and counting, 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1, South Padre Island we have liftoff!

That may be coming from a SpaceX command center in South Texas soon, as the company reportedly prepares to dump Florida for the Lone Star State for its launches.

SpaceX is close to announcing a new commercial launch complex in Brownsville. Last week the company cleared a Federal Aviation Administration environmental review at Boca Chica Beach (adjacent to South Padre Island across from the jetties) near the Mexican border on the South Texas gulf coast.

This will also help South Padre Island tourism and real estate take-off (again), South Padre is suffering from perceived safety issues from the near-by border issues, even without a single incident on U.S. soil. The SpaceX program and launches should help eliminate that perception.

The Brownsville Monitor local newspaper says that if SpaceX and other companies do their launches from Texas, the only thing they’ll have to worry about is FAA regulations.

• Florida’s space-related economic development agency, does not like Texas getting the SpaceX program and didn’t mince words on what a huge loss this will be to Florida’s near-monopoly on space launches.
• California won’t like it either, and is already reeling from large losses to Texas’ better home prices and lower taxes. Officials in Texas hope that SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon 9 Heavy rockets will be built in TEXAS.

Both Florida and California should consider why so many businesses and people are leaving those states and coming to Texas. People prefer smaller government, less tax, and more affordable-better real estate.

South Texas, South Padre Island and Brownsville are well on their way to hosting a major commercial spaceport. The planned 56 acre site on the Texas coast will launch about a dozen rockets a year. This is particularly good news for the beleaguered South Padre Island area tourism and vacation home markets.