SpaceX has built the machine to build the machine. But what about the machine?

The launch site began as rolling dunes with a mound of dirt and a few satellite dishes communicating with Dragon spacecraft. By mid-2019 the company had moved dirt, built a small launch pad, and engineers operated from nearby Stargate as the Starhopper prototype conducted initial flights. Assembly of Starship progressed from small tents to large tents and towering high bays as Starbase expanded to meet production needs. The development culminated in the Starfactory, a massive, modern rocket factory opened earlier this year. Rapid expansion displaced the local, eclectic community, led to demolition of earlier facilities, and prompted environmental and resident consternation. Starbase now functions as its own Texas city with Starfactory at its core.

Driving down the pocked and barren two-lane road to its sandy terminus, I found only rolling dunes, a large mound of dirt, and a few satellite dishes that talked to Dragon spacecraft as they flew overhead. A few years later, in mid-2019, the company had moved some of that dirt and built a small launch pad. A handful of SpaceX engineers working there at the time shared some office space nearby in a tech hub building, "Stargate."

Over the ensuing years, as the company began assembling its Starship rockets on site, SpaceX first erected small tents, then much larger tents, and then towering high bays in which the vehicles were stacked. Starbase grew and evolved to meet the company's needs. All of this was merely a prelude to the end game: Starfactory. SpaceX opened this truly massive facility earlier this year.

To the consternation of some local residents and environmentalists, the rapid growth of Starbase has wiped out the small and eclectic community that existed here. And that brand new Stargate building that public officials were so excited about only a few years ago? SpaceX first took it over entirely and then demolished it. The tents are gone, too. For better or worse, in the name of progress, the SpaceX steamroller has rolled onward, paving all before it.

Read at Ars Technica