Spacex, the most famous space company in the world will face bigger problems as residents
of Boca Chica groans about the unprecedented noise, pollution and restriction of movement
starbase has conditioned them to live with.
Elon Musk may have a bigger dream to innovate a space travel company for the modern era,
but residents living close to his "space city" have claimed he has ruined a once quiet beach
town.
How is starbase now becoming a live-threatening company to Boca Chica residents and what urgent
move is spacex, doing to subsidize the situation.
Also, Is the FAA initiating another strenuous investigation?
We will also talk about how spacex is remodeling Kennedy Space center.
Stick around as we discuss all these in today’s episode of Tech Space.
First, Boca Chica residents claim they no longer have the liberty to relax, and enjoy
themselves on the beach that was freely given to them by nature.
And we all know that a beach is a solitude to refresh ourselves from stress.
The beach is one of those places that makes us feel relaxed and refuel our inner powers.
As the waves come in, crash together, and then recede again, it activates the parasympathetic
nervous system in our body, which slows down the brain and helps promote relaxation.
This is described as “de-stimulating our brain.
Also, being in nature, a place you feel safe, and relaxed, ready to ease off a whole week's
stress on a lovely weekend, can lower your blood pressure and stress hormone levels.
Likewise, spending time at the beach can lessen anxiety and the arousal of your nervous system,
which is what makes you feel stressed.
But the tragic news is that all these are difficult to lap up the sunny rays and tranquility
of the small Texas, United States town when SpaceX rockets are frequently firing themselves
into the sky.
At least that is what residents of Boca Chica are saying, with the small community resting
on the mouth of the Mexican border fuming at the Starbase activities.
Resident Mary Helen Flores, a teacher living nearby, said: "It was a little neighborhood,
and Elon Musk came and took it over.”
"He renamed it Starbase without asking anyone.
He just announced it on Twitter."
A company that will be responsible for transporting hundreds of starships into space – nonstop
every week requires the kind of living space and infrastructure that only a town can provide.
Hence, transforming the village of Boca Chica will be essential for the vision of exploring
space and landing on the moon.
Starbase was established in early March 2021 when Musk officially approached the Cameron
County administration.
He named the city Starbase, so that America will know that this area of America's land
will be used for launching rockets into space.
The area is ideal for SpaceX because of its proximity to the equator -- where the earth
spins faster, giving rockets a boost during lift up.
According to a source, Elon Musk picked Texas because it’s a dirty red state where no
one’s going to care what he does in a poor border town.
His quest to develop the area, made him destroy a pristine paradise in the name of saving
animals, and that gave an instant kick to the FAA’s investigation.
A 60 Minutes report, which has been kept secret from the public, reveals that Elon Musk's
is becoming a source of clashes between government agencies and local residents in a small Texas
town over the company's launch and testing facility.
When one of the residents was interviewed by correspondent Enrique Acvedo, the resident
claimed that spacex tests rockets without giving any warning to the public for prompt
evacuations of homes, and flames that emanate from the tests are later witnessed to cause
bushfires at long distance.
But it seems Elon Musk careless about all this; and that reflects our minds back to
what Elon said in 2018.
He said; "We've got a lot of land with nobody around, so if it blows up, it's cool."
Does this mean Elon Musk does not consider the feelings of residents?
The starbase launch site also shares a boundary with the Boca Chica National Wildlife Refuge
- a home to many vulnerable species of animals.
When a test flight on March 30th blew up, it sent debris into the refuge, killed some
of the fragile animals, and it took over three months to clean up.
This incident alone accelerated the grief in residence.
But from spacex’s agreement with the FAA, the company only has permission to close down
the highway for a total of 300 hours per year.
Newstead and his team decided to start tracking closure hours.
They allege that SpaceX has exceeded up to 1,000 hours.
A local advocacy group, Save Rio Grande Valley, signals an alert to the district attorney
that spacex has allegedly breach the FAA permit.
The district attorney then wrote to SpaceX, saying, "If SpaceX has indeed exceeded the
allotted hours, then there is no longer a legal authorization to obstruct State Highway
4."
SpaceX responded to the district attorney with a letter saying they took the matter
seriously, and that they are "committed to working cooperatively" to resolve it.
They say they are honoring their agreement with the FAA, and by their count, they've
only closed down the highway for "226 hours and 9 minutes."
SpaceX referred to the allegations brought by Save RGV as "not accurate."
But in documents obtained by 60 Minutes, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service communicated
to the FAA that they also believe SpaceX has been exceeding their assigned hours.
And all these allegations show SpaceX's operations in Boca Chica have been a major source of
tension between government agencies.
A fish and Wildlife service manager also expressed his frustration in an internal email to a
Wildlife biologist.
They wrote, "This is totally unacceptable.
If we don't stop this now, we'll never be able to reel it back in."
They added, "How do we stop this thing in its tracks and start over?"
This reflects the fact that animal and human life residing around starbase are suffocating
under Elon’s dictation, of running the company at starbase, and looking at picture, we could
guess that things are already getting out of hand.
There is a time SpaceX tried to purchase all of the homes and businesses in Boca Chica
village, offering three times the fair market value of those homes…not everyone took up
their offer.
Efforts to use “compulsory purchase” did not go though.
This is because some residents had an intention to use starbase facility as a source of income
– like a few remaining people are actually making money by videoing spacex facilities
and making YouTube videos, and also collecting rent from people who want to erect camera
towers to watch the activities at SpaceX.
That literally means some business minded citizens in boca chica are using starbase
to make money from tourists, and people who come around.
So all these problems compounded are the harsh reasons why spacex wants to move important
launches from starbase to kennedy space center.
If spacex continues its most important operation in starbase, they will face trouble in the
hands of the FAA, or residents at Boca chica may file a petition and somehow, the company
may be restricted indefinitely from launching any starship on American’s soil.
Meanwhile, amidst all these problems, spacex was still seen relocating equipment from Kennedy
space center Florida to starbase.
This movement was captured live by NASA Spaceflight’s 24/7 Space Coast Live webcam, hardware began
accumulating at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center Turning Basin on January 12th.
In the space of four days, four midsize storage tanks, three large storage tanks, five high-pressure
gas tanks, multiple sections of a launch deluge system, and a starship booster under construction
were all rolled out from their comfort zone and ready for shipment.
And there was an obvious guarantee that all the equipment was headed to the company’s
main branch at Starbase.
The amazing part of the shipment is that a giant metal tube, measuring several feet wide,
dozens of feet long, and fitted with several outlets connected to the same giant pipe,
which is likely possible could be used to repair the starship’s deluge system.
Almost all rockets use some sort of deluge system to prevent their own exhaust from damaging
or destroying themselves or their surroundings.
A large volume of water sprayed into the space just below a rocket’s engines can prevent
the acoustic energy they produce from destroying other facilities nearby.
And this move begs the question if spacex is no longer relocating to Kennedy space center,
or perhaps the equipment were moved to prepare for the upcoming starship orbital launch.
Will spacex still move to KSC or is there a plan B insight?
While they decide, an Starship Orbital Launch New Date Has Been Released After Taking Care
Of FAA $175,000 Fine, check on all the details, just click on the video..