Elon Musk’s SpaceX company is planning to add a futuristic tourist resort to its rocket-making plant in the small Texas town of Brownsville, according to a job listing on its website.
The vacancy is for a resort development manager for the village of Boca Chica, about 19km northeast of Brownsville on the Gulf of Mexico.
The listing says: "SpaceX is committed to developing this town into a 21st-century spaceport. We are looking for a talented resort development manager to oversee the development of SpaceX’s first resort from inception to completion."
Boca Chica Village is presently the site of development of the Starship prototype, a heavy-lift rocket that is expected to be able to carry up to 100 passengers. The idea is that this will be used as a vehicle for tourism, with offers such as a sightseeing trip around the moon.
The resort would ensure that its passengers would enjoy their time before and after the trip.
Preparations are also under way to build "Super Heavy" – a 31-engine reusable rocket that would be needed to lift Starship out of the Earth’s gravity well.
According to The Browsville Herald, the development may involve demolishing the 30-or-so structures that make up Boca Chica Village. The company has been engaged in buying up properties at the site, offering owners three times the appraised value of their properties in order to convince them to move.
The paper comments that the main attraction of the resort would be Super Heavy and Starship, which together on the launch pad would stand 120m tall, roughly equivalent to a 28-storey building.
Image: SpaceX’s Starship prototype next to a Falcon 1 rocket in Brownsville (SpaceX)
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