SpaceX leases several large facilities in Brownsville, Texas
Capitalism in space: In a clear sign that SpaceX plans to expand its Starship/Superheavy operations in Boca Chica, Texas, it has now leased several large facilities in nearby Brownsville.
Earlier this month, the company signed leases with the Brownsville South Padre Island Airport (BRO) for 46,000 square feet of warehouse space and a neighboring private industrial park owned by PacVentures for 60,000 square feet of warehouse space. Francisco Partida, the airport’s special projects manager, said talks with SpaceX about leasing the former Taylorcraft building at 2100 Les Mauldin Road began in mid-July.
The company was looking for 100,000 square feet of warehouse, which the airport couldn’t supply, though SpaceX found the additional square footage it needed in the privately owned industrial park at 1900 Billy Mitchell Blvd., he said.
SpaceX has also committed about a half million dollars to repairing and refurbishing the airport warehouse.
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Capitalism in space: In a clear sign that SpaceX plans to expand its Starship/Superheavy operations in Boca Chica, Texas, it has now leased several large facilities in nearby Brownsville.
Earlier this month, the company signed leases with the Brownsville South Padre Island Airport (BRO) for 46,000 square feet of warehouse space and a neighboring private industrial park owned by PacVentures for 60,000 square feet of warehouse space. Francisco Partida, the airport’s special projects manager, said talks with SpaceX about leasing the former Taylorcraft building at 2100 Les Mauldin Road began in mid-July.
The company was looking for 100,000 square feet of warehouse, which the airport couldn’t supply, though SpaceX found the additional square footage it needed in the privately owned industrial park at 1900 Billy Mitchell Blvd., he said.
SpaceX has also committed about a half million dollars to repairing and refurbishing the airport warehouse.
Readers!
Every February I run a fund-raising drive during my birthday month. This year I celebrate my 72nd birthday, and hope and plan to continue writing and posting on Behind the Black for as long as I am able.
I hope my readers will support this effort. As I did in my November fund-raising drive, I am offering autographed copies of my books for large donations. Donate $250 and you can have a choice of the hardback of either Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8 or Conscious Choice: The origins of slavery in America and why it matters today and for our future in outer space. Donate $200 and you can get an autographed paperback copy of either.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. My analysis of space, politics, and culture, taken from the perspective of an historian, is almost always on the money and ahead of the game. For example, in 2020 I correctly predicted that the COVID panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Every one of those 2020 conclusions has turned out right.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Once they get Starship flying reliably, hold on to your hats. They are going to start cranking out so many copies of the suckers every month that Musk will have to open more side corporations (like Starlink) to generate loads for them: orbital hotels, space telescopes, Mars colony equipment, Moon base equipment, spacesuit manufacture…
It has been willed from above…..Billy Mitchell Blvd.?
Only SpaceX is worthy of being at that address.
This shows that the economic model, which is often taught, that there is one pie to share, is wrong. If there is only one pie, then for one person to get rich, to get more pie, then others must necessarily get poorer, get less pie.
One of the beauties of free market capitalism is that anyone can choose to bake more pie, perhaps of a different flavor than the one available pie*. If the baker cannot afford the ingredients or the equipment, then he can band together with others to pool money in order to afford to bake the pie. SpaceX is doing this in Brownsville. It is pooling money to build Starship and Starlink, and it is now sharing pie with Brownsville (trading pie for warehouse space). SpaceX’s services should lead to more products becoming available from space, adding even more pies to the economy. It is an upward spiral, spreading wealth and prosperity.
* I am pondering running down to Marie Callender’s or some other pie shop to get a banana cream pie. I haven’t had a piece in a decade and all this talk of pies is beginning to give me a craving. I can always start another diet tomorrow.