Starbase general manager visits McAllen, makes announcements

MCALLEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — The McAllen Convention Center today welcomed Starbase General Manager Kathryn Leuders where she made various announces as to their continuing mission.

She also talked about the upcoming election to make Starbase the newest city of Cameron County.

“This is not us moving away," Leuders said. "We are in the valley, part of the valley, and we will be a partner to the people of the valley and so the folks we have coming in, if we are successful, will be coming in as interim positions.”

She provided details as to how the new city government would work when established, if the election is successful, and also of the region’s importance to their workforce and even water issues.

Hidalgo county leaders and businesses like Flower Guerrero from Col Air were in attendance for the speech and Q&A.

“Many times, we feel like Starbase is not but she just affirmed that everything that they are doing at Starbase is to be part of the community efforts that we do as a whole," Guerrero said.

Lueders focused on where SpaceX's mission currently stands and how it aligns with regional business goals.

“There is always suppliers to such a large business such as that, and if we can bring them here then so much the better," said Hidalgo County Judge Richard F. Cortez. "I speak to many of our consumers here that say every time we need one of our machines fix that they have to get somebody from the outside.”

Water was another major issue discussed as many attendees asked how Starbase plans to help with water conservation efforts. Leuders said the company is looking into that.

“Obviously, we need water too," Leuders said. "It's pretty important commodity for us, if you notice, like when we're doing the launches, our goal is to, like, recapture as much of that, but we need to be able to mitigate all the heat in the engine area, to be able to protect the pad.”

Lueders also announced the beginning of their gigabay project and that SpaceX is once again welcoming school field trips to hopefully inspire the next generation.

“I think that would be something phenomenal for our students to be able to get up close and see these rockets from nearby and it would make a significant impact on the child and maybe give them a goal to achieve or work towards in the future," said Cynthia Rojas, who teaches science to fifth graders.

Retired space program worker Ginger Emry says she worked with schools in the past to get students interested in space. She believes this can work in the Rio Grande Valley.

“What we did is work with the teachers that were there and did a whole program of the new class coming in about space," Emry said. "And, the space for math, science and they had children from other countries that they interacted with them and were in space programs.”

Emry says she already spoke with SpaceX and they are looking into the program and see if it could be done locally. She says she is willing to provide advice to them.

Lueders said that flight nine will be using a reused booster and will most likely happen in the afternoon. However, no date was provided as to when that launch will happen.

“Right now, we are doing that for a reason because we want to be able to see when the starship is returning like the vehicle in daylight, and we have to be able to see the conditions and at the landing site," she added.