Could the Brownsville-South Padre Island International be home to a tourist attraction, namely a Starship prototype?
SpaceX Founder and CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Monday that he could send one over the airport since it serves the communities of Brownsville and South Padre Island.
“If South Padre and or/Brownsville would like a Starship prototype, we can send one over,” Musk tweeted.
Airport officials were elated by Musk’s offer and tweeted back, “We’re ready for it and have great location to display it at (Starship Road) where do we sign up?”
The Twitter thread with user @SpacePadreIsle suggesting it would be neat to have a Starship in a public rocket garden for SpaceX fans near the entrance to South Padre Island. Musk mentioned the airport in a reply tweet. “Maybe near BRO airport since that serves both communities.”
Francisco Partida, interim assistant director of aviation at the airport, said he was excited that Musk had included the airport in a tweet and officials are anxiously awaiting Musk’s next move.
“It’s really exciting when a billionaire tweets you, but we are going to have to wait and see what direction we get from the Starbase team or the Hawthorne team, which they run the governmental affairs and public relations,” Partida said Monday afternoon.
Airport officials anticipate Musk’s team at Starbase would reach out to them either later Monday or Tuesday and hopefully figure out what details would come next.
“Apparently they have extra Starships to go around. We are very excited. We weren’t part of the conversation but we got tagged by that other Twitter handle that was asking for it be by South Padre Island, and then he was the one that suggested well why don’t we do it near the airport since the airport serves both communities,” Partida said.
Partida said sometimes airport officials just observe tweets but because this one included the airport they wanted to let Musk know that they are ready to be home to a Starship prototype.
“We have the perfect location. We just named that road last year when we opened the terminal, and we named it Starship Road, and it was a city commission-approved item,” Partida said.
Having a Starship prototype would not only draw tourist to the airport but in addition shows the efforts the city is making to position Brownsville as the new space city, Partida said.
“On the border, by the sea and beyond like the mayor and city manager have already branded and to create that ecosystem for the aerospace industry for both air and space and for entities to come and relocate to Brownsville and expand business in
