SpaceX flies employees to Brownsville for another week at Starbase

SpaceX flew its Boeing 737-800 (N154TS) from a California seaplane base to Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport on May 26, a 2-hour-41-minute hop that touched down at 17:44 UTC. The aircraft, a former Air China jet acquired in 2023 and painted in SpaceX’s two-tone gray livery, functions as a high-capacity employee shuttle rather than executive transport, per the company’s flight records on Celebplanes.

The destination is Brownsville, the gateway to SpaceX’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, where the company continues development and testing of its Starship rocket. The same week, no major public event is scheduled, but the steady cadence of flights—three round trips between LAX and BRO in the past week alone—suggests routine work on the next Starship test campaign, as noted by Simple Flying’s analysis of SpaceX’s fleet operations.

This trip fits the pattern: N154TS has logged dozens of LAX–Brownsville shuttles since entering service in late 2023, moving engineers and technicians to and from the Texas launch site. The aircraft’s rooftop antennas, often remarked upon by planespotters, are believed to support Starlink connectivity testing, though SpaceX has not commented on that role.