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Elon Musk's SpaceX Starbase Survival Guide · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:00
  Hi everybody and welcome back to the show.
• 0:02
  I'm your host will Walden. Welcome back to the Elon Musk
• 0:05
  podcast. This is a show about everything,
• 0:08
  Elon Musk and today's episode, we're going to be talking about
• 0:12
  Starbase now, if you're not familiar, star base is in Boca
• 0:15
  Chica Texas, right on the Rio, Grande River, the Gulf of
• 0:20
  Mexico, right on the border of Mexico, the very southern tip of
• 0:25
  Texas. The tip, o, Texas, as they say,
• 0:28
  they're in Cameron County. T.
• 0:30
  So Starbase, if you take Highway for East from Brownsville and
• 0:36
  you drive about 20-ish miles down that Lonesome Road, you're
• 0:42
  going to see some amazing things.
• 0:45
  It is a desolate, beautiful place.
• 0:48
  There's I've seen Tumbleweed I've seen all sorts of bird
• 0:54
  species. I've seen Wildlife like crazy
• 0:57
  down there. I've seen stray dogs.
• 0:59
  I seen cars that are in the ditch and other people helping
• 1:04
  them out of the ditch. I've seen big trucks stuck in
• 1:06
  the sand at the end at the beach.
• 1:09
  I've seen pretty much everything considered.
• 1:12
  It's a crazy experience on a day-to-day basis and it can be
• 1:18
  pretty cool if you do it right, though.
• 1:21
  So temperatures at Starbase and Boca Chica near Brownsville can
• 1:26
  breach over 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
• 1:29
  I was down there filming Starbase and Starships for nine
• 1:34
  months. And most of the time, it was
• 1:37
  pretty hot. It was about 90 degrees, most of
• 1:40
  the time, sometimes during the fall and during the winter it
• 1:44
  get down to, you know, 75 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
• 1:48
  But for the most part, when I was down there, I got there in
• 1:50
  August the day that I moved there in or as September 10th
• 1:55
  actually got their September 10th the day that I got there.
• 1:57
  It was 96. Ruiz.
• 2:00
  I moved into my apartment. It was 96 degrees.
• 2:02
  I had to unload my whole car. Into my apartment by myself.
• 2:07
  My whole car was packed. I have a little Subaru sedan but
• 2:10
  whole car is packed. I'm Sweating Bullets.
• 2:13
  I'm on the second floor. It's 96° there in the humidity
• 2:19
  is ridiculous. So I'm going to tell you some
• 2:22
  things that you're going to need to do in order to survive
• 2:27
  Starbase because surviving Starbase is exactly what it is.
• 2:34
  It's a beautiful place. It's an amazing place.
• 2:36
  You're going to see some of the coolest things you'll ever see
• 2:39
  in your entire life. If you go there, if you're a
• 2:42
  space flight fan, if you're a technology fan, you're going to
• 2:45
  see some really cool stuff. But you have to make sure that
• 2:48
  you're taken care of before you go down highway four because
• 2:53
  Highway for like I said, before is about 20 miles, it's a 20
• 2:56
  Mile. Stretch from Brownsville, Texas
• 2:59
  to Boca Chica Beach at the end of Highway for is Boca Chica.
• 3:03
  I could beat you can literally drive onto the beach and I would
• 3:06
  suggest driving out of the beach.
• 3:08
  Only, if you have an all-terrain vehicle or a 4x4, don't drive on
• 3:15
  there with a car. I've seen so many cars.
• 3:17
  Get stuck in the sand because people they don't have the right
• 3:23
  tire. Something there's so many
• 3:25
  reasons you get stuck in a little bit of sand and sand is
• 3:28
  not solid in his starts deteriorating away, your car
• 3:32
  slowly. Sinks into the sand, the more
• 3:34
  you use it. So I would suggest parking on
• 3:36
  the side of highway for and walking to the beach.
• 3:39
  So, that being said, 20 miles down highway for there's
• 3:45
  literally nothing. There's a gas station before you
• 3:49
  turn on the highway for and that's it.
• 3:52
  There's a gas station right there.
• 3:54
  So I would suggest, if you're low on gas, get gas and
• 3:57
  Brownsville on your way there. Fill up your tank.
• 4:01
  And then head down highway for towards Starbase.
• 4:07
  Also, make sure to bring water with you cold water, if you will
• 4:13
  very is cold, as you want to get it ice water, if you can because
• 4:17
  it's going to get hot down there.
• 4:19
  Not only is it a 90 plus degrees every day Fahrenheit but there's
• 4:24
  absolutely zero shade when you get down there.
• 4:29
  So bring an umbrella with you. If you're you know if you have
• 4:35
  problems with Heat. I would suggest going at a time.
• 4:40
  Either early in the morning or very late at night after 9:00,
• 4:46
  you'll still be able to see most of it because the light from
• 4:49
  Starbase actually is pretty good.
• 4:53
  It's a industrial Zone, it's a construction zone.
• 4:55
  So they have construction lights out.
• 4:58
  They're building all night long, they build 24/7 down there.
• 5:02
  The rocket, you'll be able to see the rocket anytime of day,
• 5:05
  any time of night because you'll be able to have access to
• 5:08
  Highway for due to the access to the beach past Starbase.
• 5:15
  So they have to keep the highway open when they're not testing
• 5:19
  for locals and other people that want to use the beach because
• 5:22
  it's in the Texas Constitution that all beaches are public.
• 5:27
  So, That being said, how we for has to be open so you can go to
• 5:31
  the beach. So you have access to drive by
• 5:33
  Starbase. Okay, so about 20 miles down
• 5:36
  Starbase, here's that down Star based on Highway 4, you'll see
• 5:42
  the beginnings of Starbase about 10 to 15 miles down.
• 5:46
  You'll see you can barely see the top of the high Bay, over
• 5:50
  some bushes and over a little little Hill.
• 5:53
  On your left side. Starbase production, facility
• 5:56
  will be on your left. Left side as you go into the
• 5:59
  region. Now, this is important.
• 6:00
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  So go to back plays.com / heel on backblaze.com, Ilan
• 8:09
  backblaze.com, Ilan. Most important thing, about this
• 8:14
  whole journey, make sure to watch out for potholes on
• 8:19
  Highway 4 because I've seen countless blown tires, bent
• 8:26
  axles cars, The side of the road and I'm like, I'm not joking.
• 8:30
  Like this is really, really serious.
• 8:32
  People can get really hurt and also you don't want to be out in
• 8:36
  the 100-plus degree heat with a broken down car because it takes
• 8:42
  anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, to get a tow truck down
• 8:45
  there and also most of the way down there, there's no signal
• 8:51
  for your phone, so it's really desolate out there, sometimes
• 8:56
  you'll get a signal Sometimes you won't when you hit Starbase,
• 9:01
  it's hard to get a signal. So be very careful of the roads.
• 9:06
  Don't swerve, go, the speed limit Drive cautiously, be very
• 9:11
  good to yourself on that road because it's your only way in
• 9:15
  and out of Starbase. If you're listening to this
• 9:20
  right now, please, if you can leave a review on the podcast
• 9:24
  app that you're listening to right now.
• 9:26
  That would be really great if you could just give us a great
• 9:28
  review because try to build up this podcast even more than it
• 9:31
  already has. And we're in the top 100 of
• 9:33
  Technology podcasting the United States now.
• 9:36
  So thank you to everybody who's been subscribing and Following
• 9:41
  the show. Thank you so much.
• 9:42
  We have a show on YouTube called space news pod and that's
• 9:45
  usually where we take the content from because I do that
• 9:49
  as a live show and then I use that on this podcast because
• 9:52
  they're kind of the same thing all about Elon Musk, right?
• 9:56
  So that being said, let's get back to Highway for the first
• 9:58
  thing you'll see is the production site on your left
• 10:00
  side. The production site is where
• 10:03
  they build everything. And when they build everything
• 10:07
  you'll have access to witness it.
• 10:10
  So though there will be cranes, there will be trucks, there will
• 10:15
  be all sorts of heavy equipment coming in and out of the
• 10:18
  production site. So be careful and stay on your
• 10:22
  own side of the road. Do not go to the other side.
• 10:25
  The road on the left side for anything other than to, you know
• 10:32
  to go take a picture or something in the Rocket Garden.
• 10:36
  And that being said the Rocket Garden Road.
• 10:40
  You can walk down that but don't drive down it you know, I've
• 10:44
  driven down it a few times to get video when I when I've been
• 10:49
  in a crunch for time. But other times I've had to walk
• 10:51
  down the whole Road and that's okay but make sure to stay on
• 10:55
  the side of the road, that's not SpaceX property.
• 10:58
  They have property markers and do not pass those property
• 11:01
  markers. Do not go into space X property,
• 11:04
  they can arrest you, you can get thrown in jail and Cameron
• 11:07
  County and that's not fun. More than likely, they're not
• 11:12
  going to do anything, because you're going to stay outside of
• 11:15
  their property Zone, they have a clearly marked off, so you don't
• 11:19
  have to worry about it. So, walk down there, take a
• 11:21
  couple pictures, stay on the other side of the road of the
• 11:24
  Rocket Garden. And you'll be fine and then turn
• 11:28
  around and leave, you know, it's a, it's a production facility.
• 11:32
  This is a construction site. So they're being very nice to
• 11:35
  you and allowing you access to what they're doing down there.
• 11:40
  So don't take advantage of it. Please just be nice.
• 11:43
  Be courteous, be kind be good and do your thing and then
• 11:47
  leave. So there's a few questions that
• 11:50
  I've gotten asked on Twitter. People DM me at space news.
• 11:53
  Pod is my Twitter account if you want to follow.
• 11:57
  Where do you park? That's the big question.
• 12:00
  If you can't go into space X facility, totally
• 12:03
  understandable. Where you going to park well
• 12:06
  across the road from the SpaceX. Facility is usually a pretty
• 12:10
  good spot to park because sometimes they do have people
• 12:16
  over there. They have employees that park
• 12:18
  across the road, but most of the time, those people Park on
• 12:21
  SpaceX property So cross the road as long as there's no
• 12:25
  marker is on the side of the road.
• 12:27
  They tell you not to park there, you should be fine.
• 12:29
  So, just be careful, because the side of the road is kinda bumpy
• 12:34
  and there's there's a sometimes the drop-offs off the side of
• 12:38
  the road. So, be careful when you're when
• 12:40
  you're driving in and parking on the side of the road.
• 12:42
  Don't get in people's way, just be nice, you know, just just be
• 12:46
  a good person. That's pretty much all they ask
• 12:49
  is like, hey, just come down here and check it out like we
• 12:51
  have to show the world how good Cool.
• 12:53
  This is so go down there. Check it out.
• 12:57
  Show them how cool it is, you know, take some pictures but
• 12:59
  don't walk over to SpaceX property because they will NAB
• 13:03
  you and they will tell they'll kick you out.
• 13:06
  So you don't want to get be kicked out before you get to the
• 13:08
  real show, which is the launch pad down the down the road about
• 13:11
  a mile and a half. So you go from the production
• 13:16
  site and you drive down the road, it's brand new paved.
• 13:20
  So it's really nice Road. At that point.
• 13:24
  All the way down to the launch facility.
• 13:26
  Launch facility be on your right side.
• 13:29
  You'll see boosters there. You'll see a rocket.
• 13:31
  They're probably right now at this recording, it's booster
• 13:35
  seven and Rocket 24. So stack together, it's 24/7.
• 13:41
  And when they put those things together, when they stack them
• 13:44
  up, it's absolutely insanely. Cool.
• 13:47
  So where do you park down there across the road?
• 13:50
  On the left hand side, as you're driving down.
• 13:53
  There's usually some parking. But what you'll want to do is
• 13:57
  Park a little bit further away than there's usually a big
• 14:00
  cluster of cars and those clusters of cars are the SpaceX
• 14:04
  employees. So you don't really want to park
• 14:08
  where the employees park because they work there.
• 14:11
  R. After a hard day of work, they
• 14:13
  don't really want to walk super far to get to their vehicle.
• 14:16
  So just give them the courtesy of you parking further away down
• 14:21
  the beach and down the road a little bit towards the beach, a
• 14:23
  little bit more, and then walking up the side of the road.
• 14:27
  That's away on the other side of the road, from the SpaceX launch
• 14:31
  facility near where everybody Park.
• 14:33
  So be careful crossing the road, of course, be good.
• 14:38
  Watch where, all the other cars are?
• 14:41
  Look both ways before you cross the street.
• 14:43
  All those things people told you when you're a little kid you
• 14:46
  know make sure to do those things and you'll be fine.
• 14:49
  Just kind of stay out of the way, you know, be excited but
• 14:53
  also kind of just be there you know you have to be in the
• 14:56
  moment as well so don't don't you know play by people's cars.
• 15:03
  If you see something, you like a cool shot, you want to take,
• 15:06
  it's pretty active during the daytime, so be careful of
• 15:12
  vehicles and also cranes and giant trucks.
• 15:15
  Things are being moved in and out of that place all day long.
• 15:19
  So be careful and also there's a website you can check to see if
• 15:22
  the roads are closed before you go down there.
• 15:26
  So there's a Cameron County website that you can check out
• 15:30
  and it is Cameron County, TX dot, gov / SpaceX.
• 15:37
  And that's where all All the Cameron County temporary
• 15:41
  closures of State Highway for in Boca Chica Beach.
• 15:44
  That's where they list everything.
• 15:46
  You can also get texts when they closed the beach you can text
• 15:53
  Beach be EA CH all capitals 2866. 5133 475.
• 16:03
  That's Beach 2866. 5133 475 and then you'll know when they
• 16:15
  actually close the beach because if you're going to go down
• 16:17
  there, you have plans to go down there and they close the road
• 16:20
  before you get down there. It's kind of a bummer.
• 16:23
  It's happened to me a bunch of times and just kind of kind of I
• 16:28
  just didn't look at the website you know, and they closed the
• 16:31
  beach or close the road on the or I was out and about anyway as
• 16:34
  I gotta swing by SpaceX real quick.
• 16:35
  I just want check I'll just get whatever footage I An and, you
• 16:39
  know, they turn you away. They have roadblocks up and
• 16:42
  stuff so you can actually, you cannot actually go to this, to
• 16:45
  the launch site or the build site or where they're
• 16:48
  transporting things, they just block you off.
• 16:50
  So, just be forewarned of that. So the survival kit, let's get
• 16:56
  back to that a little bit carry water with you.
• 17:00
  When you're walking around, make sure to have water with you.
• 17:03
  Make sure you have water in your car.
• 17:04
  Make sure you know maybe if you want Gatorade to rehydrate
• 17:07
  that's cool. If you're really susceptible to
• 17:11
  heat damage. Just be careful, be very
• 17:15
  careful. Bring maybe an extra bag ice
• 17:18
  with you to cool down afterwards.
• 17:20
  I'm very susceptible to heat damage myself.
• 17:22
  I've had a bunch of heat Strokes when I was younger so I've had
• 17:28
  heat injuries throughout my life.
• 17:29
  So I had to play it really safe, get a giant hat.
• 17:34
  That's one of the things that I always tell.
• 17:35
  Everybody get a big hat. The Hat will keep the sun off
• 17:39
  your face and we'll keep the sun off your shoulders.
• 17:41
  You'll want to wear long sleeves, loose-fitting long
• 17:44
  sleeves and breathable material in the same.
• 17:49
  Goes with your pants. You want to wear full pants?
• 17:52
  You can wear shorts and stuff to if you don't have heat injuries,
• 17:54
  but this is more focused on people with heat injuries.
• 17:59
  Are people that are that are kind of susceptible to heat or
• 18:02
  some so breathable, clothing, of course, you don't have to wear
• 18:07
  full pants. I wore full pants too.
• 18:09
  There's a lot of bugs down there, so, wearing full pants
• 18:12
  and full shirts throughout the day and high socks kept, the
• 18:18
  bugs away from me, and if you look at all the workers down
• 18:21
  there, none of them were in shorts.
• 18:23
  They're all wearing full Pants full shirts and helmets and son.
• 18:29
  Glasses. And that's pretty much what you
• 18:33
  should do as well. Maybe not the helmet.
• 18:35
  That's probably a little bit too much of an Overkill thing but
• 18:38
  we're a nice big brimmed hat. Wear light colors and stay cool.
• 18:44
  You know, stay as cool as possible.
• 18:46
  Bring snacks with you. Before you come down, grab some
• 18:49
  snacks. If something happens to your
• 18:51
  car, if it overheats on the way down, you'll want to have some
• 18:53
  food and some snacks with you, in case you get hungry, you
• 18:57
  know, you don't want to be out in 105-degree weather.
• 19:00
  And be, you know, low blood sugar.
• 19:02
  You know, like that's not good. It's a survival thing at this
• 19:05
  point. So you have snacks, you have
• 19:08
  water, you should be all right. So brings a little bit of sugar,
• 19:11
  bring a little bit of maybe some beef jerky, something like that,
• 19:14
  that would be cool. So, what I ended up doing a lot
• 19:19
  of the time, but I would have snacks, I would have water and I
• 19:22
  would give them to people there. What stop by because I was
• 19:24
  filming on the side of the road and they that they'd ask me what
• 19:26
  I'm doing there and I would tell them and they'd say, oh that's
• 19:29
  Pretty cool and I'd say, hey, do you want a water?
• 19:31
  It's pretty hot out here and everyone that I talked to said,
• 19:35
  yes, because they didn't bring any with them.
• 19:38
  So bring water, bring some snacks with you, you know, it
• 19:41
  doesn't have to be like a full-course meal, just like
• 19:43
  something to get you by. If you have an extra 30 minutes
• 19:45
  or something like that or or an hour to, you know, to wait for a
• 19:50
  tow truck, if something does happen to your car because it is
• 19:52
  brutal down there, there's, you know, it's a construction site.
• 19:55
  So anything can happen just be ready for Any thing to happen,
• 20:02
  there's other things sunscreen, sunscreen an hour before you go
• 20:06
  out sunscreen a half an hour before you go out and make sure
• 20:08
  that it's a really high F SPF because zero shade them
• 20:12
  absolutely zero shade. So make sure to get a good SPF,
• 20:16
  a really good sunscreen wear sunglasses, too because the sun
• 20:20
  is so brutal down there. It's just plain some like bright
• 20:23
  Sun all the time. You're down there, it's
• 20:25
  beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful but it
• 20:27
  is brutal down there. So those are some of the things
• 20:32
  that I wanted to tell you in kind of warned you about before
• 20:35
  you go down to Starbase and the same applies to when you're
• 20:39
  coming back from Starbase, be careful of the roads, be careful
• 20:43
  of people. There's a lot of people moving
• 20:45
  in and out of those places. A lot of cars.
• 20:47
  A lot of big heavy machinery, just go, the speed limit, do
• 20:52
  yourself a favor, just, you know, go down there.
• 20:55
  Enjoy Starbase and then leave, you know what you come in with?
• 20:59
  If you leave with, there's no porta-potties, there's no
• 21:02
  bathrooms. So before you go down there,
• 21:05
  make sure to go to the restroom. There's no place to wash your
• 21:09
  hands. So bring, you know, bring some
• 21:12
  sand hand sanitizer. If you don't like dirty hands or
• 21:14
  whatever, but if you get too hot, this is a little secret.
• 21:17
  You could do if you get too hot, go to the end of Highway for
• 21:21
  towards Boca, Chica Beach park on the side of the road, and you
• 21:26
  can go pretty much to the beach across the beach, into the Gulf
• 21:31
  of Mexico, which has pretty decent water and will cool you
• 21:35
  down. You can just jump in there real
• 21:37
  quick. And you'll cool down
• 21:39
  tremendously after about 5 minutes you can just lay around
• 21:43
  in the water and cool yourself off if you're getting hot, if
• 21:46
  you feel yourself getting too hot.
• 21:48
  So I would suggest that if you want to cool down and also just
• 21:51
  go there for the fun of it. To, you know, the beach is
• 21:53
  really nice. It's quiet.
• 21:55
  You know, there's not that many people there and it's pretty
• 21:58
  chill. So I would suggest going to the
• 22:00
  beach to while you're down there, if you're a beach kind of
• 22:02
  person. So that's pretty much it for now
• 22:04
  everybody I want to say thank you to everybody who's been
• 22:07
  Scribing the show. If you haven't subscribed yet,
• 22:09
  please hit your subscribe button.
• 22:11
  On your podcast app. I greatly appreciate all your
• 22:14
  support. Make sure to boost the signal of
• 22:16
  the show, so we can do more Elon Musk podcast.
• 22:18
  So, thank you everybody. For all of your continued
• 22:21
  support, take care. And I'll see you next time.