Brevard County public meetings about a possible Starship launch site at the Cape will take place from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at these locations:
- March 5: Catherine Schweinsberg Rood Central Library, 308 Forrest Ave., Cocoa.
- March 6: Titusville Civic Center, 4220 S. Hopkins Ave., Titusville.
- March 7: Radisson Resort at the Port, 8701 Astronaut Blvd., Cape Canaveral.
In my email, a letter came from a friend and member of our city council, alerting us to this newest SpaceX development in the works:
SpaceX is planning a public forum to get our input on plans to begin launching the Starship rocket here on the Cape.
Currently, Starship is being built, readied, and tested in Boca Chica, Texas. Boca Chica is located along the Texas coastline on a low density, nearly uninhabited barrier island, teeming with wildlife protected by wildlife area preserves.
According to a report in The Atlantic, Boca Chica has had big problems since Starship began running its test launches. The Starship rocket is 27 stories tall and its engine tests have damaged nearby homes, blowing out windows for example. Many homeowners sold their properties to SpaceX and have vacated the area. But some who could not afford to leave and/or fight SpaceX are holding out.
While I love watching the rocket launches here, I have had to fix cracks around my windows resulting from the percussive rattling of rocket launches (and possibly caused by the sonic booms created when spent reusable propulsion rockets return to the landing site.)
This newest Starship development is something I think everyone should look into and plan to attend a SpaceX hosted info meeting to learn how it will impact our area. Hopefully the launch site will be positioned further to the north away from us, closer to the uninhabited Cape Canaveral National Seashore.
As mentioned with the Boca Chica saga, Elon Musk has a strategy that has his Starship workforce moving there, using eminent domain to buy out the existing holdouts.
It is an interesting situation for sure. And I wanted to share this information with you because it will be best to have everyone attend the meeting, ask questions, and let your voice be heard. If launching Starship is no worse than the Delta (or Atlas) rockets, there’s no problem, in my opinion. However, many of you have longer experience with this type of impact than I do. So I think it is important for your presence and your voices to be heard at this meeting.
The accompanying article in The Atlantic below reported on the Boca Chica situation. Please read it. It is lengthy, but I think you will find it of great interest.
I am keeping an open mind, while also keeping track of SpaceX’ other launch sites.
I plan on attending the meeting to learn what I can. It is scheduled for March 7th from 4 to 7 pm.
Please share this info with your neighbors and others who might be affected by this. Our city will also be putting out info about this. In the meantime, the issue was reported in Florida Today at this link: https://www.floridatoday.com/story/tech/science/space/2024/02/15/spacex-starship-launches-at-cape-canaveral-air-force-studying-environmental-impacts-florida/72561261007/.
PLEASE NOTE: Because the lengthy article that appeared in The Atlantic is behind a paywall, I have reprinted it here.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/02/space-x-texas-village-boca-chica/606382
Yikes! At first thought it seems somewhat exciting. But the shattering of windows doesn’t sound good. And what about noise? How far from residents? Personally I think I would prefer my area to stay the same.
Elon could check out the land that the Chinese & Bill Gates have.