The South Texas home of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket company is now an official city with a galactic name, Starbase.
According to AP, a vote on Saturday to formally organize Starbase as a city was approved by a lopsided margin among the small group of voters who live there and are mostly Musk’s employees at SpaceX.
With all the votes in, the tally was 212 in favor to 6 against, according to results published online by the Cameron County Elections Department.
Musk celebrated in a post on his social platform, X, saying it is “now a real city!”
Starbase is the facility and launch site for the SpaceX rocket program that is under contract with the Department of Defense and NASA that hopes to send astronauts back to the moon and someday to Mars.
Musk first floated the idea of Starbase in 2021 and approval of the new city was all but certain. Of the 283 eligible voters in the area, most are believed to be Starbase workers.
The election victory was personal for Musk. The billionaire’s popularity has diminished since he became the chain-saw-wielding public face of President Donald Trump’s federal job and spending cuts, and profits at his Tesla car company have plummeted.
