Elon Musk posted on X Tuesday that he plans on moving SpaceX from Hawthorne, California to the company’s rocket launch site dubbed Starbase in Texas. Additionally, X will relocate to Austin from San Francisco.
Musk cited a new law signed Monday by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, which bars school districts from requiring staff to notify parents of their child’s gender identification change, as the “final straw.”
“I did make it clear to Governor Newsom about a year ago that laws of this nature would force families and companies to leave California to protect their children,” Musk wrote.
Tesla, where Musk is CEO, moved its corporate headquarters to Austin from Palo Alto, California in 2021. Musk has also said that he has moved his residence from California to Texas, where there is no state personal income tax.
SpaceX builds and launches its massive Starship rockets from the southern tip of Texas at Boca Chica Beach, near the Mexican border at a site called Starbase. The company’s smaller Falcon 9 rockets take off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and Southern California. Starbase is located just below South Padre Island, about 20 miles from Brownsville.
