Space X to launch from Boca Chica beach near Brownsville, Texas

Westport News:

 SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk has signaled his company's intent to put its much-sought launch pad project on a beach near Brownsville.

The signs came Friday in final comments Musk gave at an unrelated news conference in Washington, D.C. SpaceX is "developing a launch pad on the south coast of Texas, near Brownsville. We're waiting on the final environmental approvals for that. We expect those soon, and we'll probably have that site active in a couple of years," said Musk, who also co-founded PayPal and Tesla Motors in addition to the California-based private rocket maker.

A final environmental impact assessment is pending from the Federal Aviation Administration. The assessment could be issued next month and could help determine if the Boca Chica Beach site gets the FAA license required for commercial rocket launches.

Lower Rio Grande Valley promoters are assuming nothing regarding the region's prospects for becoming a space base.

"There is no spaceport project in Brownsville — yet,"Gilberto Salinas, executive vice president of the Brownsville Economic Development Council, told the Houston Chronicle.

However, "I think it is all looking very, very positive," Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos told The Brownsville Herald. "If he (Musk) is saying that, all that is left now is the results of the EIS (environmental impact statement). And I think what he is trying to say is if this comes out in a positive light and there is no major significant issue that can or cannot be mitigated, then they are going to come to South Texas."

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service already has advised the FAA that rocket launches would "not likely jeopardize" endangered species in Cameron County.

In March 2013, the Legislature approved $15 million in incentives and other considerations to attract the project

The launch pad would be developed at the eastern end of Texas 4 about three miles north of the Mexican border and about five miles south of Port Isabel and South Padre Island.
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I used to go fishing near that site when I was in high school.  It will be interesting to see how they will get the launch vehicles to that location.  I am glad to see the Lower Rio Grande Valley get such a project.  Hopefully it will bring some engineers and other white collar jobs to the area.