While some Texans are excited that Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is considering the state as the site for a commercial spaceport, company founder and Chief Executive Elon Musk says he has not seen much interest from state officials.
In November, Musk said SpaceX wants to build a launch site that functions “like a commercial Cape Canaveral.” In addition to southern Texas, the company said it would be considering sites in Alaska, California, Florida and Virginia.
“There’s been a lot of good action by the authorities in the Brownsville area; there’s not been that much at the state level, and we’d certainly appreciate more from the state level,” Musk said.
With the role of NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston unclear in the wake of the space shuttle’s retirement, some Texas officials believe the state should be making a strong effort to court the SpaceX spaceport.
“The state of Texas ought to be on it like a duck on a June bug,” said Tom Moser, a former NASA space station program director who led an effort to build a Texas spaceport in the 1990s.
