A trip to Musk city
'This is the future, man,' a SpaceX fan tells Oliver Laughland as they look over at a giant rocket. 'It's a weird combination of the wild wild west and the brand new future!'
The rocket stands in Starbase, Texas, and the Guardian US southern bureau chief was visiting at a very particular time: as the area home to Elon Musk's pioneering space company was poised to vote in an election to officially transform the place into its own city.
As Laughland tells Michael Safi, he met nearby residents long exasperated by the presence of the company – and its hulking rockets – driving up rents, and accused of spoiling local beaches. But he heard too from SpaceX super-enthusiasts, some of whom have moved across the country just to live close to Starbase, the HQ with ambitions to send people to Mars.
Why does Musk want Starbase City? And, as he leaves his official role in Trump's administration in the same month, what does it tell us about his ambitions ahead?
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