According to a Bloomberg report, “Department of Homeland Security planning documents show the border wall running directly through a launchpad” at the “50-acre Boca Chica, Texas facility where Elon Musk’s SpaceX is testing the prototype version of its Starship rocket,” Gizmodo reported last week.
The subcommittee chair overseeing DHS appropriations Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-D) told Bloomberg that the issue is “the fence cuts right through their property and that’s a problem,” adding that “she is trying to have the facility exempted from any possible projects.”
As for SpaceX, they “appeared to have been laying low” and were not “publicly raising a fuss about the matter.”
Representative Filemon Vela, a Democrat whose district includes the SpaceX facility, said the company isn’t happy about the plans, though it hasn’t publicly raised objections.
“They are way behind the scenes on this, they are lying pretty low,” said Vela, citing information he was given by local officials. “SpaceX doesn’t want to offend DHS.”
SpaceX hasn’t lobbied Congress on border barriers on its property, and hasn’t asked anyone to do so on its behalf, a company official said.
Bloomberg
No word yet if there was a carve out for SpaceX in the funding bill signed Friday like there was for the National Butterfly Center and other Texas refuges in the Rio Grande Valley region.