SpaceX has become the largest employer in Brownsville, Texas, and estimates $885 million gross output for the county it’s based in, reports say

• SpaceX is Brownsville's largest private employer, with more than 1,600 employees, its mayor said.
• Houston Chronicle reported on SpaceX's $430 million investment in 2021 in Cameron County.

SpaceX is now Brownsville's "largest private employer," following an investment of $430 million on operations in 2021, according to a Houston Chronicle report about the Texas city.

The company expects to contribute $885 million in gross economic output for Cameron County, Brownsville Mayor Trey Mendez said on Thursday at the "State of the City" event, per the outlet.

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Elon Musk's space company now has more than 1,600 employees based at the Boca Chica site, where it is building its Super Heavy rocket and Starship spacecraft.

"Not only have they become our largest private employer, but they recently added a substantial presence within the city for various operations," Mendez said.

SpaceX recently posted several engineer job openings at their Brownsville location on its website.

The company invested $500,000 to improve the 46,000 square feet site it has leased at the Brownsville Aerospace Industrial Park, the mayor said.

Elon Musk said last month: "We'll have 39 flightworthy engines built by next month, then another month to integrate, so hopefully May for orbital flight test."

However, SpaceX must get the Federal Aviation Administration's approval and a license to launch it into orbit. The FAA recently pushed back its environmental review of the site for a third time to April 29.

SpaceX wanted to expand its Brownsville site and add another launchpad but US Army Corps halted the plans earlier this month as it sought more data.

The Brownville-based rocket production site, called Starbase, first started testing rocket engines and flights in 2019. The company started buying up Cameron County properties as early as 2012 and unveiled Texas as its launch site in 2014.