Is Elon Musk building a new SpaceX facility in Myakka City?

Preliminary paperwork filed by the company indicates he wants to. According to the Tampa Bay Times, SpaceX—the aerospace company Musk founded in 2002—has proposed a "fenced, gravel compound on a 0.73-acre area with 40 satellite antennas" at 3350 C.R. 675, west of Waterbury Road and south of Lake Manatee. 

According to county building records, the Myakka City SpaceX facility would "support high-bandwidth, low-latency data communications"—in other words, fast and responsive Internet. That’s in line with the work of the SpaceX subsidiary Starlink, which uses satellites to provide Internet throughout the world, even in areas without the existing infrastructure to support it.

According to SpaceX's proposal for the Myakka site, the facility's antennas and associated infrastructure would "facilitate both uplink and downlink communication services." 

Like traditional Internet providers, Starlink offers paid subscriptions for businesses and residential users, but it can also be activated for free in the wake of a natural disaster, as it was for areas affected by hurricanes Helene and Milton last year. Starlink and its satellites have also played a critical role in the Russia-Ukraine war, allowing Ukrainian military forces and citizens to access the Internet after widespread blackouts due to fighting.  

“At this time there are no active building permits. All applications for this project are in for review,” says Manatee County information outreach officer Bill Logan.

But building a facility like this in Myakka City makes sense for SpaceX, which is simultaneously broadening its partnership with NASA and its footprint in Florida. Gov. Ron DeSantis confirmed earlier this year that SpaceX is on track to invest $1.8 billion on the Space Coast and bring 600 full-time jobs to that area by 2030. SpaceX also plans to launch its first spaceship from Kennedy Space Center by the end of the year.