AUSTIN — SpaceX, the rocket ship company jockeying for new state laws and a hefty incentive package to build a launch site in South Texas, has assembled a growing influence machine this legislative session to lay the foundation for a blockbuster deal with the state.

CEO and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk is flirting with the idea of converting a strip of salt flats in South Texas into a commercial spaceport for rocket ships, a prospect that has state lawmakers drooling over the potential economic boom.

SpaceX needs the Legislature to pass two bills — one to close a state beach for rocket launches and the other to provide legal cover for noise complaints — and for the state's top officials to craft a worthy incentive package.

Without that, the deal could go to one of several competing states, which Musk says are willing to pony up more than Texas.

All indicators are that Musk's preference is to launch rockets, propelling payloads and eventually U.S. astronauts and tourists into orbit, from a site near Brownsville. That city is pinning its hopes of becoming a high-tech hub squarely on the commercial space industry.

State ethics filings show how SpaceX geared up for the legislative session with a set of proven techniques: bringing on a team of hired guns and shelling out for trips, gifts and entertainment for lawmakers.

“I have heard about SpaceX ... really for the first time this session,” said state Rep. Jim Pitts, a Republican from Waxahachie and the House's top budget writer, who spent several days in California in January on a SpaceX-funded “fact-finding” trip. “This is our opportunity. It's going to be like bringing NASA to the (Rio Grande) Valley,” he said.

'A mutual attraction'

In preparation for the legislative session, SpaceX supercharged its lobbying efforts, spending up to $219,000 this year on contracts, disclosure filings show.

The company's Texas lobbying team is spearheaded by Demetrius McDaniel, a former top official for ex-Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower and long considered one of the most influential lobbyists in the corridors of the state Capitol.

Compare its current efforts with the 2011 session, when SpaceX spent less than $25,000 to contract with a single lobbyist, according to records.

This year, the company also shelled out for the first time to fly a powerful state lawmaker — Pitts — and his top staffer to tour SpaceX facilities in California and attend a Lakers game, records show.

In some ways, SpaceX is taking a page from the playbook of its political influence machine in Washington, D.C., where the company spends big to jockey with regulators and to battle against giant aerospace businesses for government contracts. Last year, SpaceX spent more than $1 million for the first time, lobbying Congress and federal agencies, according to U.S House and Senate records.

But this is the first time SpaceX has flexed substantial muscle at the Texas Legislature, despite operating a test site west of Waco since 2003.

State lawmakers pushing for the company to build a launch site near Boca Chica Beach are quick to point out that the enhanced SpaceX efforts this session are about making clear to those in power that Texas is poised to land the spaceport, if the deal is right.

“Usually, we have to fly all around the country to attract business and woo them, and quite frankly, there's a mutual attraction here that could make for an incredible partnership,” said state Rep. Rene Oliveira, D-Brownsville, who is sponsoring SpaceX legislation. “It's important to know they want to come to Texas.”

'Neat experience'

Roughly two weeks into this legislative session, SpaceX hosted Pitts and his chief of staff, Aaron Gregg, for a couple of days in California. The two spent time, according to disclosure filings, touring a SpaceX launch site at Vandenberg AFB, a manufacturing facility in Van Nuys and the company's headquarters in Hawthorn.

Pitts, who has become one of the biggest SpaceX advocates at the Capitol, described it as a “really neat experience.”

While in California, company lobbyists paid nearly $500 for meals and beverages and picked up the tab for a three-day stay at a four-star hotel in Santa Monica, just blocks from the beach.

An extra perk: tickets to watch Kobe Bryant and the Lakers trounce the Utah Jazz at the Staples Center. SpaceX also gave the two an assortment of small gifts, including track jackets, mission patches and baseball hats. The total price for the trip, according to ethics filings: $6,803.

“It wasn't an unusual deal. It was to explain their SpaceX program,” Pitts said of the trip.

About a month after the California trip, Musk was in front of Pitts' Appropriations Committee to pitch lawmakers on the spaceport deal.

Records show SpaceX lobbyists also hosted at least six lawmakers from a House panel and three staffers at its rocket test facility west of Waco not long after the California trip.

Lawmakers who attended the tour described the facility as top-secret: no photos or recordings.

While there, the group rubbed elbows with the folks who develop rockets and got to see some tested, from a distance.

“You could kind of feel it,” said Rep. John Davis, R-Houston, chairman of the House Economic and Small Business Development Committee.

Like Pitts and Gregg, the lawmakers and staffers were given gifts: pens shaped like rockets and T-shirts, totaling more than $250, disclosure records show.

Later in the session, that House panel passed a bill to give private space companies like SpaceX the ability to launch rockets with legal cover from nuisance noise lawsuits.

Lawmakers on the panel said they paid their own way to get to the rocket test site, making a stop at the SpaceX facility after touring the Texas State Technical College as part of a committee outing. Also, they said, trinkets can't buy influence.

“They're intent to be relevant in Texas in a big way,” said Rep. Cecil Bell, R-Magnolia, who toured the facility with the committee. “It's an even bigger vision than what we're hearing right now.”

Legislature's role

Musk describes his idea for the launch site near Boca Chica Beach as a “commercial version of Cape Canaveral.” He's looking at pumping $100 million into the spaceport, which initially would conduct up to 12 launches a year.

Lawmakers and local officials are giddy about the potential to transform the region into a hub for commercial space flight.

To keep talks on the table with Musk and SpaceX, the Legislature needs to pass two bills. House Bill 1791, by Davis, deals with noise complaints and lawsuits. House Bill 2623, by Oliveira, would allow Boca Chica Beach to be closed during rocket launches.

“In the absence of these laws, we cannot move forward in Texas with the launch site,” Musk said last month.

Both bills sailed out of the full House uncontested and are pending in the Senate.

Asked about the company's increased lobbying presence, Musk scoffed at the idea that it has had anything to do with the smooth passage so far of the SpaceX bills.

“I don't think this is something that's happening because of our skill of lobbying,” he said, noting the bills have lacked any substantial opposition in the Legislature so far.

At the same time, Musk is maneuvering for a hefty incentives package to build the launch site in South Texas. Lawmakers and local officials are playing those discussions close to the vest for fear that it will galvanize a bidding contest.

Recently, Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal personally called Musk to make a sales pitch.

Florida, where SpaceX already launches rockets, has discussed its own offer from a $20 million-a-year economic development fund set up specifically to benefit aerospace companies. Puerto Rico also is considered a front-runner.

Musk said other states appear willing to put up more than Texas, but he's just looking for a good deal to take back to his board of directors “to say, 'Hey I think we should do it in Texas because that's what I think probably strategically makes the most sense,'” he said. “We already have operations in Texas, and it would be nice to keep things consolidated here.”

'Real-life Iron Man'

It's not just the lobbying team or the trips and gifts that have made SpaceX a known commodity this session.

Musk, who co-founded PayPal and electric car-maker Tesla, has also lent his personal touch to the process. He's hit the state Capitol twice this session to push his agenda, which also includes getting the Legislature to change state law to make it easier to sell his Tesla autos.

In the process, Musk has made nice with a variety of lawmakers — some even seemingly smitten with his rocket-science smarts and business acumen.

“Modern-day, real-life Iron Man,” state Rep. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, joked, referring to Marvel Comics' genius billionaire superhero Tony Stark.

Musk has received one-on-one face time with Gov. Rick Perry, most recently in March, to chat about the potential for a South Texas spaceport. SpaceX even scored a shout-out during Perry's State of the State address.

Just months before the session started, Musk also opened his wallet for folks at the Legislature for the first time. According to campaign finance records, he spread out a total of $7,500 into the coffers of five legislators.

“It seems like they're serious about Texas,” said Lucio, who received a $1,000 campaign donation from Musk in November.

Public watchdog groups have noticed Musk's effort, equating the billionaire's request for an incentive package to “taking corporate welfare to the next frontier.”

“He's shopping around to see which government is going to give him the biggest handout tax dollars to send private spaceships to the great beyond,” said Andrew Wheat, a research director at Texans for Public Justice. “This is how it works in Austin. If you want something, you have to work and you have to play these guys, and they want to be played.”

drauf@express-news.net