Elon Musk arrives in Brownsville following Starship static fire test

Elon Musk flew from Jack Northrop Field Hawthorne Municipal Airport in California to Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport in Texas aboard his Gulfstream G550, tail number N272BG. The 2-hour-49-minute flight departed at 10:00 p.m. UTC on May 7, 2026, and touched down just after midnight local time the following day, reaching a maximum altitude of 45,050 feet.

Musk's timing coincides with a full-duration static fire test of SpaceX's Version 3 Super Heavy booster conducted at Starbase on May 7, as captured in recent footage. With Starship Flight 12 now targeted for the first two weeks of May—delayed from earlier plans, per Musk's April announcement—the visit underscores his hands-on role in accelerating the program's milestones amid ongoing expansions at the South Texas site.

This trip fits Musk's pattern of shuttling between California operations and his modest rented home near Starbase, where he has resided since selling his California properties in 2020. Recent flights kept him in the West Coast tech corridor, including stops near SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne and Tesla facilities, before this return to Texas—the heart of his rocketry ambitions.