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The 22,000-some employees of Elon Musk’s SpaceX enjoy their very own company town, complete with subsidized housing, corporate medical clinic, and even an employee-only gastropub. While the development is apparently successful at courting eager SpaceX staffers, locals living just outside this billionaire-funded Garden of Eden are considerably less starstruck.
According to reporting by Reuters, SpaceX is now facing a class-action lawsuit filed by 80 residents of neighboring towns, as the company’s constant barrage of rocket launches — specifically the earth-shattering rumbles they produce — physically eats away at their homes.
One plaintiff who chose to remain anonymous showed Reuters her home in Port Isabel, Texas — less than 6 miles away from Starbase as the crow flies. Per the news publication, it was in a clear state of deterioration, with cabinets that no longer sit evenly, doors that won’t close, and warped flooring after a major waterline burst during a particularly tumultuous rocket launch.
Altogether, the plaintiff claims it will take some $100,000 to repair the home’s foundation, which would exceed its current value. “They’re wanting to get to Mars,” the woman said. “But what about us that are here? I’m here now. And nobody is thinking about us.”
The class-action lawsuit alleges this kind of damage has occurred across dozens of households living next to SpaceX’s numerous launch pads. Together, the 80 plaintiffs accusing the company of negligence, gross negligence, and trespass based on the Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984, which grants the Secretary of Transportation power to terminate or suspend commercial rocket launches “if it is determined that such operations are detrimental to the public health and safety” of US citizens.
On top of physical damage to homes and property, poor and working-class residents have suffered as the influx of SpaceX cash has drastically inflated the cost of housing for both homeowners and renters alike. According to a review by Moneywise, the price of an average house in Cameron County — where Starbase is located — has skyrocketed from $131,000 in 2014 to over $281,000 in 2026.
Even for those who can pay the higher cost of living, Starbase is threatening the quality of life, for example by hoovering up land previously used by the county’s residents for recreation. As resident Rene Medrano told ABC in a 2025 interview, Starbase has now all but ruined Boca Chica Beach, a public-access area once beloved by locals.
“It was called a poor man’s beach because you didn’t have to pay anything to go to the beach other than just get in your car, get in your truck, round up the neighbors, round up the cousins, round up the aunts and uncles and let’s go have fun,” Medrano said. “And to see now the way it is… it’s just, disheartening is what it is.”
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