2024 In Review: Lueders discusses SpaceX’s impact on the RGV economy

MCALLEN, Texas – Kathryn Lueders, general manager of Starbase says the local community means a big deal to SpaceX.

Lueders gave the keynote speech at the Vistas from Texas seminar co-hosted by UT-Rio Grande Valley’s Center for Border Economic Studies and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. Her presentation was titled: “SpaceX’s presence and impact on the RGV economy.” The event was held at Rio Bank’s headquarters in McAllen.

“We’re vested, right? We are here to stay, and we will be looking forward to many, many launches off of Boca Chica and really understanding and being part of this community,” Lueders said.

In a power-point presentation, Lueders showed what she said was one of her favorite pictures, taken from the harbor.

“If you go to Starbase, none of that hardware happens without the people that are there. When I started a little bit over a year ago, less than 2,000 SpaceXers were there. We’re now up to about twenty-five, twenty-six hundred.”

Depending on how the company’s construction and maintenance contracts go, another 700 to 800 workers could be added, she said.

Kathryn Lueders, SpaceX’s general manager of Starbase.

“You can be a rocket scientist, an engineer from the Rio Grande Valley and stay in the Rio Grande Valley. But this is a community endeavor. We’re not doing this without huge investment from the community and creating places where our people want to stay and live and continue to live… this is going to take all of us to really be able to grow this enterprise, to be able to conduct all the missions that we want to do.”

Lueders continued: “So community is like a big deal for us. Sometimes you can be so focused on work. But I tell people, wear your SpaceX shirt out in the community. Now, behave yourself when you’re wearing your SpaceX shirt out in the community. If you’re going to go out to parties, maybe leave your shirt home for that day. But I am proud of the fact of how many people are out there and living in the community, and that we actually do a lot of things to be able to get the community to understand that we do care about the community.”

Lueders ran through some of things SpaceX does to integrate its workers in the community.

“We have a third Saturday, where employees… there’s a new area where we go. Marisela (Cortez) finds this place, across the whole Valley, spreads it out, because it is important for us to be able to show up and show that we do care and want to help,” Lueders said.

Marisela Cortez is external affairs manager at Starbase. She was present for Lueders’ presentation at the Vistas from Texas seminar.

“We also do this thing once a month where we invite employees to work with a local restaurant, and we kind of we pick their day off and so that all their revenues on that day off are from SpaceXers. And we kind of then allow the folks to be able to go experience a new restaurant, like in Harlingen or Brownsville,” Lueders said.

“Sometimes when we have people from out of state… it’s just getting them to that first place and feeling comfortable, and then they can start exploring the community themselves. We specifically do that type of event with our Starbasers at least once a month.”

Lueders added: “We also look at, what are the other community and support organizations (we can help)? Obviously, Marisela doesn’t have an unlimited budget for support, but she looks around. What are the key things that most impact communities, and how do we make sure that we are showing a presence there? Because obviously, we want people to understand we do feel like part of this community.”

Editor’s Note: Here, below, is an audio recording of Lueders’ full presentation at Vistas from Texas seminar. She is introduced by Pia Orrenius, vice president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

Editor’s Note: This is the third in a three-part series on Kathryn Lueders’ presentation at the Vistas from Texas seminar. Click here to read Part One. Click here to read Part Two.

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