In 2011, Gilberto Salinas – CEO of the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation – received a call from a little-known company out of southern California, Space Exploration Technologies, inquiring about a potential rocket launch site in Brownsville, Texas.
Following a lengthy site selection process, the company better known as Elon Musk’s SpaceX ultimately selected Brownsville out of dozens of candidates, touching off a new era of aerospace development for the southernmost city in the United States.
“It’s just totally changed the face of our area,” Salinas told Standard & Works at the IEDC Conference in Detroit. “Very different from five years ago. They’re at more than 4,000 employees, $3.5 billion in capital investment, [and] their economic impact is upward of six to seven billion dollars.”
What makes Brownsville appealing for aerospace?
Brownsville is the southernmost major city in Texas and the continental United States, which Salinas credits with the city’s draw for SpaceX.
The city is located on the Gulf Coast and near the Mexican border.
The city’s leadership is open to new investment and aggressively pursuing new deals, according to Salinas.
SpaceX’s presence has opened the door for other manufacturers and suppliers to come to Brownsville, whether to do business with SpaceX or to work independently in the space industry. Among them is Linde, which manufactures fuel for space rockets.
Access to neighboring energy industry talent and infrastructure.
A desalination plant.
The population is rapidly growing, with home builders saying they can’t build fast enough, according to Salinas.
While competing with larger hubs is a factor, Salinas believes Brownsville is doing well getting involved in the earliest stages of the space industry.
“This is a $700 billion dollar industry, and it’s still in its infancy,” he said. “... There’s opportunity for everybody right now.”
S&W’S TAKE
While large federal facilities and corporate bases have anchored the space CapEx landscape, the map is expanding as new kinds of companies – of all sizes – jump into the fast-growing industry. That’s why Salinas says his region is eyeing components needed for long-term Mars missions – from growing food to supplying housing in space. A whole new world of investment to attract.
EVEN FURTHER OUT
Once manufacturing and power generation capabilities exist on the Moon or Mars, the competition for site selection and landing investment will pit regions on earth against these new in-space hubs.
