BOCA CHICA — Growing up in nearby Brownsville, Raquel Aldape went to Boca Chica Beach once or twice as a child. But as she grew older, she found she preferred the beaches of South Padre Island, giving her little reason to return to Boca Chica — until SpaceX decided to hang its shingle, er, spaceship, 20 minutes from her home.

Since then, Aldape, 51, has returned here again and again to keep tabs on early prototypes of the Starship vehicle that might someday carry travelers to the moon and beyond. As she began posting photos on Facebook, Aldape soon became entwined in an international community of space enthusiasts and interstellar dreamers, hungry for photos and any other updates that she could provide from her weekly trips to the SpaceX facility.

“There’s a lot of space nerds out there,” she said, “and they’re just so excited about this.”

On HoustonChronicle.com: Elon Musk announces South Texas SpaceX launch details

SpaceX moved into the Brownsville area with a promise to create jobs and spur the local economy. Those benefits have come slowly, but billionaire Elon Musk’s commercial space company has provided other rewards by connecting local residents to a global community beyond their South Texas hometown — a community united around a vision for the space-faring future.

It’s a message Musk emphasized during a recent event in Boca Chica, where he unveiled the Starship Mk1 prototype that will be launched about 12 miles into the sky in the near future. Later iterations of the spaceship would be launched into orbit and ultimately paired with the Super Heavy Rocket to help make humans a multi-planetary species.

“There are many troubles in the world,” Musk said. “And these are important and we need to solve them, but we also need things that make us excited to be alive. That make us glad to wake up in the morning and be fired up about the future.”

Still a marvel

The excitement has even affected Maria Pointer, who is fighting SpaceX over the impact its plans have had on her property and the amount the company has offered to buy her home of 16 years. Pointer admitted that she can’t help but marvel at the activities next door, where both the Starship Mk1 and its predecessor the Starhopper were assembled. She’s dubbed the facility the Boca Chica Rocket Shipyard.

Pointer has allowed her yard to become a gathering spot for enthusiasts and reporters to observe SpaceX operations and has achieved a bit of fame as “Boca Chica Maria” from her SpaceX Boca Chica Facebook page, where she shares photos and videos of vehicle assembly and launches. She’s also partnered with the LabPadre YouTube channel to mount a camera on a pole in her front yard. This camera provides 24/7 views of the SpaceX facility, and Pointer hopes it will inspire school children.

“Some kid just may look at that camera at nighttime and see Venus or Mars or even the moon,” she said, “and look at that and go, ‘Wow, maybe I really could be an astronaut or maybe I really could colonize Mars.’”

Austin Barnard, although not a kid, is among those dreaming of Mars — and those frequenting Pointer’s home. Growing up in Brownsville, the 21-year-old said he felt trapped, directionless and like an outsider, yearning to learn about the worlds beyond Brownsville while his peers remained content with their lives in South Texas.

But then he heard about SpaceX launching its Falcon Heavy rocket, the world’s most powerful operational rocket, in February 2018. His social media fame began not too long after when Barnard Tweeted a photo of the Starhopper, a now retired prototype that was designed to test the Raptor engine and other spacecraft systems.

His four followers ballooned to more than 200 overnight. His Twitter handle @austinbarnard45 now has some 12,000 space friends. Many of them contributed to a crowdfunding campaign that raised $1,300 for Barnard to buy a nicer camera and to take better quality pictures.

“The space community, I just love them,” Barnard said. “I feel like I’ve finally found my people.”

On HoustonChronicle.com: The question in Boca Chica: Do you take Elon Musk’s money and run? A 180

He’s taking classes at Texas Southmost College and would like to transfer to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. And while his major is still undecided, Barnard would ultimately like to help Musk colonize Mars.

He met his idol in September when Musk visited Boca Chica. They discussed artificial intelligence, Star Trek and, of course, the Starship. He has a photo of him and Musk, flashing the Vulcan salutation from the Star Trek series.

“My life has done a complete 180,” he said. “This is honestly the happiest days in my life so far. I have to thank Elon for everything.”

Spreading wonder

Aldape, too, has found some purpose — and comfort — from SpaceX and the promise it holds for humankind. On May 11, her son, 27, committed suicide. Following SpaceX’s progress and sharing it with a community of space enthusiasts has become an outlet, a way to not obsess over her son, Mark Andrew Torres, a veteran of the Marine Corps, and why he took his own life.

It also became a way to spread the wonder to others.

“You don’t know what people are going through. I didn’t know about my son, that he was suffering from depression,” she said. “If I can be a little help with that, bring joy and happiness through my pictures, then I’m all for that.”

andrea.leinfelder@chron.com

Twitter.com/a_leinfelder