Beal’s TX footprint was at McGregor, which he built as a testing/manufacturing site. Elon bought it, early on, for the same purposes and has expanded it considerably. If there was ever a filament winder, it was probably there. And, like the even bigger one SpaceX was initially playing with in San Pedro, pre-stainless steel Starship, it has most probably long since been scrapped.

One hour per launch is no problem. Who will be on the beach after dark, after midnight? Have you ever been on an ocean beach after midnight? Its really not that romantic, in fact its quite buggy and mostly cold.

What was the history of the location–didn’t Beal have a filament winder there?

Texas used to be blue. Democrats made their usual mess of things and Republicans in Texas – who are not the hapless establishment types who have control of the party apparatus in CA – made a concerted effort and pushed Dems out of statewide offices and out of majorities in the state legislature. This change was aided by an influx of people fleeing CA and other blue states. And they did bring their politics with them, but those were red politics, not blue ones. Now that Trump has made it not only possible, but even fashionable, for non-Cuban latinos to be Republicans, and the growth of manufacturing in TX – to which Elon Musk has massively contributed – has drawn in blue-collar workers from the entire nation, the prosperity thus generated has turned formerly solidly blue, but chronically poor, parts of TX, like Starbase’s Cameron County, purple or even outright red.

There are certainly lefty Californians leaving the state, but they tend to go to other blue states, notably Oregon, Washington and Colorado.

Starbase, the Company Town? :)

1. As I wrote here, after walking within 750 feet of Flight Test 1 stack the day before the launch, I urge you to go there if you have a desire. It is changing fast. Already there are more walls and barriers to obstruct your view. The ability to walk (legally) to within 10 feet of the Rocket Garden has vanished. This is not a complaint, it is something that has to be done but it was amazing to see the sights we saw. It will be gone soon, I think.

2. The Texas state legislature has stepped in to limit the city of Starbase from unilaterally closing Boca Chica beach road. Still trying to understand what the limitation is, I think it limits the number of closures in some relationship with FAA limits on flights. Not sure.

Lots of blovating from leftists in Texas about “theft of democracy”. One State Rep has declared this is the hallmark reason that Texas must “Go Blue” to prevent the Lone Star state from being turned into an oligarchy. Don’t know that this will be the reason but Texas is slowly but surely turning to the blue side as more from NY, CA, CO, OR, etc flood in.