SpaceX's Starship SN4 prototype explodes after rocket engine test

https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/1266451354861686784

by executive • 6 years ago

31 17 6 years ago

areoform5• 6 years ago

It is amazing to live in an era where experiments in spaceflight are the norm. However, it is important to note that the Boca Chica facility is in a natural preserve and wildlife corridor, https://www.fws.gov/refuge/Lower_Rio_Grande_Valley/visit/boc... , and that when SpaceX started they promised that they wouldn't disturb the locals nor the wildlife. Promises that haven't been kept.

Sadly, SpaceX has behaved like an irresponsible corporate neighbor and is interested in using eminent domain to force the residents to leave. What will happen to the wildlife is something that still isn't clear,

SpaceX can’t force the residents to leave, but the county can. In 2013, county commissioners established a corporation “to assist in the promotion and development of a spaceport project” in Cameron County. Under Texas law, the corporation has the authority to exercise the same right that lets governments take over private property and compensate its owners. When we met, Treviño, the county judge, told me that while he sympathizes with the residents, the use of eminent domain in Boca Chica Village is “probably a distinct possibility.” The law is on SpaceX’s side. A 2005 Supreme Court ruling expanded the definition of public use, the legal justification for eminent domain, to include economic development, and since then, states have taken advantage of that leeway: Texas, for instance, claimed dozens of homes to make room for a new stadium for the Dallas Cowboys. “That is something, unfortunately, that happens way more than it should,” Renée Flaherty, an attorney at the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit law firm in Washington, D.C., told me.
Flaherty first heard about Boca Chica in the fall. “Those people were already there and [SpaceX] brought a nuisance to them, and now it’s escalated to the point where the nuisance is so severe that they’re telling them that they have to leave their own property,” said Flaherty, a Texas native herself. If the county moves ahead with legal proceedings, she believes that the remaining residents would have a case for eminent-domain abuse.

- https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/02/space-x-...

If SpaceX wants to blow up rockets, they should be able to do so in a depopulated area that doesn't have species that are uniquely sensitive to explosions. There are at least fifty species of avifauna that exist nowhere else in the contiguous United States, it is an absolutely unique habitat for these birds as well as sea turtles that had been left unexploited and open to nature until SpaceX moved its operations, seeking a site closest to the the equator within CONUS.

I was initially skeptical of the importance of this site, but when the FAA initially granted them permission for this site, it assumed that such testing would not occur. SpaceX has expanded beyond this remit and is conducting extensive testing close to the habitat of several endangered species.

Caught in the middle of this debate are the managers of the wildlife refuge, who, as public officials, may find themselves in the unenviable position of putting the brakes on a deal that the governor’s office and local politicians hope will be sealed sometime this summer. “We are here to manage the refuge for the wildlife,” explains Robert Jess, a project leader at the refuge. This swath of the Valley is home to a variety of animals, such as the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, the aplomado falcon, and the piping plover, that are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. The refuge scientists must balance their criticism of SpaceX with their obligations to their agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which asserts that, despite increased traffic, high fences, bright lights, and possible fuel spills, the launchpad is likely to pose no persistent threat to endangered species.
On a blustery February morning, with the surf pounding the nearby beach, Jess paces the shoulder of Highway 4 and gestures to an expanse of dunes, tidal flats, and coastal prairie, where survey stakes mark the 57 acres that Musk hopes to transform. “The footprint is small,” Jess says, “but the potential impacts are hard for us to even imagine. When it comes to the space program, we are behind the curve. Our fear is that we are missing some big questions we don’t even know to ask.”

- https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/the-battle-of-boca-chi...

They modelled an occasional launch and a fuel spill, but they did not anticipate such constant noise pollution that the site became inhabitable for the humans as well.

I intend to become an astronaut. My username refers to the colonization of Mars. But I intend to do so to gain a better understanding of this priceless Blue Ball and to find life in places yet unseen. SpaceX's behavior goes against these principles and against common decency and morality.

edit: A bad faith criticism against this point would be to say that there is no such site that doesn't have some kind of wildlife on it. That is not true, there are thousands of acres of land used for grazing, farming, and ranching. As well as land that is regularly cleared for suburban development and is understood to not be a unique habitat for endangered species. SpaceX can deploy its resources to these sites. However, it chooses not to do so for the meagre ∆v savings the site promises.

From an evidentiary standpoint, this map highlights working land in Texas, including depleted land near the Ocean that would meet the requirements, https://www.txaglandtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/tex...

These are the wildlife appraised portions of the state, https://tpwd.texas.gov/landwater/land/private/agricultural_l... Along with the original resource, https://tpwd.texas.gov/landwater/land/private/agricultural_l...

There are plenty of other sites that satisfy the constraint. The only reason why Boca Chica was chosen was due to its closeness to the Equator. A few degrees upwards would not drastically change the ∆v savings acquired. Furthermore, a launch site does not need to be the development site for a rocket. They can test fire and develop rockets anywhere, including, say, farm land in Kansas or other states.

edit 2: Interactive maps of non-ecological sites, https://tpwd.texas.gov/landwater/land/programs/landscape-eco... as you can verify for yourself, there are plenty of sites that satisfy the constraints.

JoeAltmaier• 6 years ago

That might be a pipe dream. Name a wild space (outside human development) that can satisfy that rule?

nwah1• 6 years ago

That is why we need to build rockets on the Moon, obviously.

areoform5• 6 years ago

This feels like a bad faith argument. Farm land, ranches, the land cleared for suburban development. There are thousands of possible sites for such a place in CONUS that wouldn't pose a threat to both the humans and the native fauna.

AnimalMuppet• 6 years ago

Hercules used to test-fire rocket motors within the Salt Lake valley. Back in the 1970s, I recall times of hearing a roar, looking at the west side, and seeing one or more tongues of fire. (I also recall times of hearing a boom, looking over, and seeing a cloud of smoke.) I was 14+ miles away. Rocket tests send noise a long way.

jimrandomh3• 6 years ago

The location isn't arbitrary. For safety reasons, rockets launch over the ocean; for orbital mechanics reasons, they launch eastward, starting as close to the equator as possible. Of all the places that a spaceport could reasonably be built, Boca Chica is the least-populated.

areoform5• 6 years ago

This map highlights working land in Texas, including depleted land near the Ocean that would meet the requirements, https://www.txaglandtrust.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/tex...

These are the wildlife appraised portions of the state, https://tpwd.texas.gov/landwater/land/private/agricultural_l...

mlindner• 6 years ago

I think you're commenting in bad faith. SpaceX has done extensive remediation for the wildlife in the area including helping of Sea Turtles.

Giorgi• 6 years ago

What's with the negativity in the comments? all tesla shorters or is it a factory opening fallout?

mrDmrTmrJ• 6 years ago

Love to see SpaceX experimenting like this. What's so cool is they've specifically increased the rate of prototype construction (now reported at around one every two weeks) to allow them to increase the aggressiveness of their testing:

https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace/status/1266446536772407296

More prototypes -> More OK to blow them up -> More audacious testing -> Faster learning and faster progress.

Experimentation is good. Fast experimentation is better! So many people talk about "moving fast", we need to celebrate SpaceX for actually embodying this idea.

Bravo!

SpaceX's Starship SN4 prototype explodes after rocket engine test

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