City planning October 29, 2026 · City of Starbase · Money

Starbase's packet for Wednesday's vote: eight police Cybertrucks for $1,556,800, from the only timely bidder

The City of Starbase would buy eight police Cybertrucks for $1,556,800 from Unplugged Performance, Inc., which does business as UP.FIT, under the contract in the packet for its Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026 special meeting. That is $190,000 a truck plus $4,600 each for delivery. UP.FIT sent the only timely proposal under RFP 26-03, the packet says, and talks with city staff "resulted in a revised offer, including reduced pricing for the initial patrol vehicles."

The contract also gives the city the option to buy up to 22 more patrol trucks at no more than $204,600 each and up to ten fire vehicles at no more than $279,600 each, delivery included. With every option, it can't go over $8,854,000, plus any permitted price increases and approved change orders. Resolution No. 2026-30 would award it and let the city administrator negotiate and sign it. The request for proposals asked for ten trucks in the first order. Our Oct. 10 story.

The city has not posted the results of Wednesday's meeting yet.

• The land: SpaceX, as Space Exploration Technologies Corp., asked for two of the three expansions of the city's extraterritorial jurisdiction on the same agenda: 10.10 acres and 15.0 acres on the north side of Highway 4, the packet says. The third, 163.04 acres running from Highway 4 north to the Brownsville Ship Channel, was requested by a private landowner. None of the three annexes land, per the packet. Our Oct. 23 story on the agenda.
• Elections: the packet says the city would hold no May 2028 election and would move its general election for mayor and commissioners to November, starting with the Nov. 7, 2028 election. Officers whose terms would end in May 2028 would stay on until their successors are elected and qualify.
• Highway 4 and the 2 acres: the second public hearings on annexing 123.17 acres of Highway 4 right-of-way and the 2.01-acre tract SpaceX gave the city. No action was scheduled. Per the packet, the commission's resolution of intent (Resolution 2026-24) sets the highway annexation for Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2026.

Next: we'll post how the commission voted when the city posts the results or minutes.

Around the world

NASA's Anil Menon and the Canadian Space Agency's Joshua Kutryk began a spacewalk at 7:57 a.m. ET (6:57 a.m. CT) today, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2026, to install a new roll-out solar array on the International Space Station, NASA said. NASA had planned about six hours and 45 minutes for it. NASA+ carries it live.

Virgin Galactic revealed its first next-generation spaceship on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, named Apeiron, ancient Greek for "boundless," in a public vote. The same day it flew the ship under its carrier plane, Eve, from Mesa, Arizona, to Spaceport America in New Mexico, the company said. It expects Apeiron to begin commercial spaceflights early in the second quarter of 2027, after flight tests.

The Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile has found its first dwarf planet candidate, an icy object called 2026 ED138 that sits about 46 times farther from the Sun than Earth does, beyond Pluto's average distance. Scientists estimate it is 600 to 1,500 km (about 370 to 930 miles) wide, and infrared observations are still needed to confirm it, NOIRLab said Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026.

Sources: City of Starbase, City Commission packet, Oct. 28, 2026 (items E.1, E.2, F.1 to F.5) · City of Starbase, City Commission meetings page · NASA space station blog, Oct. 29, 2026 · Virgin Galactic, Oct. 28, 2026 · NSF NOIRLab, noirlab2626, Oct. 27, 2026 · Photo: City of Starbase