SpaceX

Billionaire Elon Musk's company on Thursday has sent a letter to local officials requesting an election to turn what it calls Starbase into an incorporated city. Starbase is the South Texas site where SpaceX builds and launches its massive Starship rockets.

SpaceX is capping off a busy 2024, with more than 100 rocket launches, including its vaunted Starship. NPR Science Correspondent Geoff Brumfiel attended the November launch of Starship alongside SpaceX founder Elon Musk and president-elect Donald Trump. He spoke with NPR's Short Wave about the environmental impact of these launches in south Texas — and what a second Trump administration could mean for the company. Related episode: Elon's giant rocket For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org. Music by Drop Electric. Find us: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Newsletter.

Starship launched from Boca Chica for the sixth time. But the booster capture stage of the mission was canceled, and the booster splashed into the Gulf of Mexico.

With each launch, SpaceX has been discharging tens of thousands of gallons of industrial wastewater into sensitive wetlands. Environmentalists say an increase in launches will only make things worse.

Cards Against Humanity purchased the Cameron County land in 2017 in order to send a political message against former President Donald Trump's border wall.

Boeing's troubled Starliner remains docked at the International Space Station as NASA decides it is too risky to bring the astronauts home on the spacecraft. The two astronauts will return in February.

SpaceX will push the ISS out of orbit at the end of its mission.

The proposal would allow up to 25 annual Starship and Super Heavy orbital launches.

SpaceX is currently seeking approval from the FAA to begin launching 25 times per year from the Rio Grande Valley and land its Super Heavy booster right on the beach launch tower, rather than into the Gulf of Mexico.

Musk said he would also move his rocket company, SpaceX, to Texas.