Starbase Coverage
Every Starbase and Starship story we can find from the past six months, newest first. We did not write these articles: each headline links straight to the outlet that reported it. What we add is the context underneath, tying a story to the flight it covers, the beach closure it caused, or the launch window it moves.
Updated November 11, 2026 · 203 stories
Starbase sits at Boca Chica in Cameron County, Texas, about 23 miles east of Brownsville. It is where SpaceX builds and flies Starship, and it became an incorporated city in 2025. Coverage of it splits in two: national space press follows the vehicle and the test campaign, while Rio Grande Valley outlets follow the permits, the road closures, and what it means for people who live here. Both are below, because you need both to understand what is actually happening.
SpaceX had a 10-year property tax abatement deal with Cameron County roll off the books, but now it wants a new round of tax breaks.
SpaceX will attempt to reach orbit with its Starship megarocket and make its first-ever double catch on Nov. 13. Here's what time Starship Flight 15 will launch.
Starship is the fully reusable rocket SpaceX builds and flies at Starbase: the Super Heavy booster plus the Starship upper stage, stacked about 400 feet tall.
SpaceX wants a Starbase tax break for a $24 billion gas plant and supercomputer campus.
Financial coverage of SpaceX matters here for one reason: launch and Starlink revenue is what pays for the Starship program being tested at Starbase.
Follow live updates as SpaceX attempts its Starship Flight 15 test flight with first double landings.
Super Heavy is the first stage, the part that does the initial lift and then either splashes down offshore or flies back to be caught by the tower arms.
Follow live updates as SpaceX attempts its Starship Flight 15 test flight with first double landings.
Starship is the fully reusable rocket SpaceX builds and flies at Starbase: the Super Heavy booster plus the Starship upper stage, stacked about 400 feet tall.
SpaceX has moved its Starship Super Heavy booster to the pad to prep for the next test flight of the megarocket, a historic mission scheduled to launch this Friday (Nov. 13).
Super Heavy is the first stage, the part that does the initial lift and then either splashes down offshore or flies back to be caught by the tower arms.
BROWNSVILLE, Texas (ValleyCentral), Environmental advocates gathered outside the Cameron County Courthouse on Tuesday, calling on county leaders to oppose a proposed SpaceX data center and natural...
Starbase flights are gated by federal and city sign-off: the FAA licenses the launch, and the City of Starbase orders the Highway 4 and beach closures that go with it.
Seven rockets from four countries are set to launch this week. Starship is set to...
Starship is the fully reusable rocket SpaceX builds and flies at Starbase: the Super Heavy booster plus the Starship upper stage, stacked about 400 feet tall.
SpaceX's next Starship test flight will take place on Friday (Nov. 13), and it will be epic: The company will try to catch both of the vehicle's stages when they return to Earth.
Elon Musk’s growing business portfolio in South Texas appears to include a data center inside the new city of Starbase and a power plant.
SpaceX plans to attempt what will be a defining moment in rocket reusability on Starship Flight 15. As Elon Musk announced in a recent X post, SpaceX will attempt to catch both the Super Heavy...
Super Heavy is the first stage, the part that does the initial lift and then either splashes down offshore or flies back to be caught by the tower arms.
SpaceX is targeting Nov. 13 for the next flight of its Starship vehicle, a mission that will attempt to catch both stages back at the launch site.
HARLINGEN, Texas (ValleyCentral), SpaceX is targeting Friday, Nov. 13 as an early date to launch Starship 15 flight. According to SpaceX, the flight is still pending regulatory approval. The...
Booster 22 and Ship 42 are in final checkouts for a no-earlier-than 13 November launch...
SpaceX numbers each airframe rather than each flight, so a headline about Ship 40 or Booster 21 is about one specific vehicle, not the mission number.
SpaceX is targeting Friday, November 13 for Starship Flight 15 and its first ship catch.
State records outline plans for an 11,500-square-foot building housing city offices, a police station and emergency dispatch operations on privately owned land.
NASA's Artemis IV moon mission will be a complicated affair, especially if SpaceX's Starship ends up being the lunar lander. The massive spacecraft will need an unknown number of refuel flights in...
NASA picked a version of Starship as the lander for Artemis, its program to put astronauts back on the Moon, which is part of why the Starbase test campaign draws so much attention.
SpaceX just fired up all six engines on the Starship upper stage that will conduct the vehicle's 15th test flight, potentially keeping everything on track for a launch next month.
In the world of spaceflight, launch infrastructure is critical for rocket launches. For agencies and...
SpaceX flies from two Florida pads, SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral and LC-39A at Kennedy. Neither is Starbase, though a Starship pad at 39A is in work.
SpaceX conducted a static-fire test with its Super Heavy boosters B22 on Sunday (Oct. 25), beginning a test campaign to ready the giant rocket for Starship's Flight Test 15.
SpaceX's Raptor engine family has steadily increased sea-level thrust while simultaneously reducing mass, turning iterative engineering gains into substantially higher performance for the Super Heavy...
Raptor is the methane-fueled engine that powers both stages: 33 on the Super Heavy booster, six on the Starship upper stage.
McALLEN, Texas (ValleyCentral), The city of Starbase paid City Clerk Gretchen Norton more than $30,000 in September, when she abruptly resigned. Starbase accepted Norton’s resignation on Sept. 4 and...
Musk disputes NASA estimate of 22 Starship launches for Moon landing, predicting 6 to 8.
Anything beyond Earth orbit is where Starship is actually aimed: the point of a fully reusable heavy-lift vehicle is cargo to the Moon and eventually Mars.
SpaceX confirmed the date of Starship's 15th launch window with some massive ambitions for the mission, as it will attempt to catch Ship for the first time. CEO Elon Musk confirmed during SpaceX's...
SpaceX plans to attempt to recover both stages of its Starship vehicle on its next launch, planned for as early as next month, pending regulatory approval.
Starship test flights currently end with a controlled splashdown at sea rather than a landing, so recovery means fishing hardware or debris out of the water afterward.
SpaceX will try to recover both Starship stages during the megarocket's next test flight, which is expected to take place in November, according to Elon Musk.
Starship test flights currently end with a controlled splashdown at sea rather than a landing, so recovery means fishing hardware or debris out of the water afterward.
SpaceX played a new Starship Flight 15 simulation showing the ship caught by tower chopsticks.
The tower arms, nicknamed chopsticks, are what stack the rocket and what catch the booster on return, which is how SpaceX intends to reuse it without landing legs.
Gov. Greg Abbott said the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department commission would not be taking up the issue of a potential sale of Boca Chica State Park to Elon Musk’s SpaceX anytime soon, following a...
Boca Chica Beach is the public beach right next to the launch site, reached by State Highway 4, and it closes for launches and some tests.
SpaceX is advancing toward its next two Starship missions as the company looks to close...
SpaceX is seeking approval for a significant increase in Starship launches from Texas while the FAA works to revise launch regulations to enable more launches in general.
Starbase flights are gated by federal and city sign-off: the FAA licenses the launch, and the City of Starbase orders the Highway 4 and beach closures that go with it.
SpaceX has proposed increasing the number of allowed Starship launches from its Starbase site in South Texas from 25 per year to 456. The FAA is currently reviewing the request.
Starbase flights are gated by federal and city sign-off: the FAA licenses the launch, and the City of Starbase orders the Highway 4 and beach closures that go with it.
Subcontractors are hiring construction trades workers for a SpaceX data center near Brownsville, records show.
A decade after Elon Musk publicly unveiled plans for the fully reusable megarocket, Starship has reached orbit. How far away is Mars?
Anything beyond Earth orbit is where Starship is actually aimed: the point of a fully reusable heavy-lift vehicle is cargo to the Moon and eventually Mars.
After surviving its splashdown and a grueling journey at sea, SpaceX's Ship 40 has returned to Starbase, where engineers will study the first recovered Starship upper stage for clues to future...
SpaceX numbers each airframe rather than each flight, so a headline about Ship 40 or Booster 21 is about one specific vehicle, not the mission number.
FAA is reviewing SpaceX's plan for 456 Starship launches a year, up from 25 today.
HARLINGEN, Texas (ValleyCentral), The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) will hold several public meetings next month to discuss an environmental impact statement following SpaceX’s proposal to...
Elon Musk says Starship Flight 15 will try to catch the ship itself, a first.
The city of Starbase inked a 45-year agreement with SpaceX for 166 acres of land in Cameron County – here’s what you need to know.
Starbase is wedged between a state park and a national wildlife refuge, so SpaceX expanding its footprint there means land swaps and beach access fights, not just construction.
Newly released footage shows Starship's upper stage separating from its booster and deploying Starlink satellites into low Earth orbit.
Starlink is SpaceX's satellite internet constellation. It is the payload on most Falcon 9 launches, which is why those flights come in such steady batches.
SpaceX is working hard to get historic Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center ready for launches of the company's Starship megarocket. The first such liftoff may be just a few months away.
SpaceX flies from two Florida pads, SLC-40 at Cape Canaveral and LC-39A at Kennedy. Neither is Starbase, though a Starship pad at 39A is in work.
HARLINGEN, Texas (ValleyCentral), SpaceX on Monday announced that eligible Cameron County residents can get a 50 percent discount on Starlink Residential service plans. According to SpaceX, the...
Starlink is SpaceX's satellite internet constellation. It is the payload on most Falcon 9 launches, which is why those flights come in such steady batches.
Both SpaceX and outside analysts appear largely satisfied with the first orbital flight of Starship despite some technical issues during the mission.
Published 4 days after Flight 14 flew, which graded success.
Starbase EDC’s strategy is taking shape, with up to $3 billion in tax-exempt bonds proposed to support SpaceX expansion and the creation of 1,000 jobs.
Published 3 days after Flight 14 flew, which graded success. Financial coverage of SpaceX matters here for one reason: launch and Starlink revenue is what pays for the Starship program being tested at Starbase.
SpaceX made significant strides in the Starship program during Flight 14. Booster 21, despite losing...
Published 2 days after Flight 14 flew, which graded success. SpaceX numbers each airframe rather than each flight, so a headline about Ship 40 or Booster 21 is about one specific vehicle, not the mission number.
The Super Heavy first stage booster, generating some 16 million pounds of thrust, twice the power of NASA's Space Launch System moon rocket, rapidly accelerated as it consumed propellant and lost...
Anything beyond Earth orbit is where Starship is actually aimed: the point of a fully reusable heavy-lift vehicle is cargo to the Moon and eventually Mars.
SpaceX launched its Starship vehicle Sept. 28 on its first attempt to reach orbit and deploy operational satellites.
SpaceX’s 14th Starship flight marked a major milestone for the South Texas launch site, carrying its first operational payload into orbit despite engine problems.
Flight 14 flew September 28, 2026 and graded success: booster splashdown, ship splashdown. Starlink is SpaceX's satellite internet constellation. It is the payload on most Falcon 9 launches, which is why those flights come in such steady batches.
Starship reached orbit despite losing an engine, deployed 26 Starlink V3 satellites on Flight 14.
Flight 14 flew September 28, 2026 and graded success: booster splashdown, ship splashdown.
SpaceX on Monday sent its Starship out to orbit for the first time, with the company looking for the craft to achieve six laps around the Earth in order to show off its capability for the NASA...
HARLINGEN, Texas (ValleyCentral), SpaceX officially launched its fourteenth flight test from Starbase on Monday morning. On Sept. 15, SpaceX announced the flight aimed to be the first to send...
Flight 14 flew September 28, 2026 and graded success: booster splashdown, ship splashdown.