After the failed launch of a SpaceX rocket last April, South Texas citizens reported that debris was strewn for miles, in some cases sparking fires at the Boca Chica launch complex on the Gulf Coast.
Bloomberg News reports that, in preparing for a federal review, officials were incredulous about the extent of the environmental damage. What did they locate and what could that mean for the long-term of SpaceX’s operations in Texas?
Bloomberg reporter Dana Hall joined Texas Standard to talk about it. Listen to the story above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited for clarity:
Texas Standard: Tell us about this environmental report. It is from the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In the US, right?
Dana Hall: That’s right. The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service is guilty of overseeing control of federal lands near Boca Chica. What we learned from filing a public record request (or to the federal government, it’s called a Freedom of Information Act request) is that fisheries and wildlife officials were unable to access the debris box for 48 hours. The cushion was damaged. SpaceX has shut down access to the site. US Fish and Wildlife was requesting access to SpaceX.
When they arrived at the site, they discovered a lot of debris: pulverized concrete as rebar, pieces of concrete in the marshes. They were hunting to see if there were dead birds. In email exchanges, they expressed disbelief at the extent of the damage.
Was this the most unexpected facet of this case, to note the magnitude of the damage?
I do, yes.
The debris box was so far away and so wide. Bloomberg reported what the Fish and Wildlife Service discovered in April when all this happened. But what we discovered recently was just more information: photographs taken at the site through fish and wildlife biologists, things like charred eggs. There was a snowy plover that was in its nest just before the rocket was launched. There were some interesting photographs that biologists took when they made their first inventory of the scene after the failure.
As I understand it, hectares of park have been burned. Were there any recommendations as a result of this report?
Well, that’s what interests me in the future. As probably every Texan knows, SpaceX plans to relaunch Starship. To relaunch, they will have to download some other FAA license to release the spacecraft after what happened in April.
I think the FWS is pushing the FAA to request more environmental mitigation measures, but it’s not clear exactly what those mitigation measures will be, because part of what happened is that the debris was spread beyond what was anticipated. So, do you want to take more measures to mitigate this phenomenon?That’s what I’m curious to find out.
Who do they pass to explain something like that?
Many other stakeholders are concerned about this.
This part of Texas is literally fascinating. Part is owned by SpaceX, part is federal territory, part is Texas State Park land. So I think there’s a lot of stakeholders involved, there’s a lot of multi-agency meetings and a lot of phone calls. calls. That’s what I’m looking to combine now: what you want to happen before any other release license is granted.
The explosion prompted a review of the launch site. How has this affected SpaceX’s launch schedule and plans for the future with Starship?
Part of what happened is that the force exerted during the attempt to remove the rocket from the base damaged the base. Much of the concrete splattered everywhere came from the platform itself. Later, the rocket exploded. But much of the damage we’re talking about in this estuary along those marshes was due to damage to the shelf itself. Now, SpaceX wants to rethink the platform a bit.
There are many questions about why they didn’t dig a trench, such as digging a deep trench under the platform to absorb the force of all the engines. They redesigned the design and added water deluge systems. But there is a lot preguntas. de open debate about what they could have done and what else they could have done. SpaceX just tested its engines on Friday. It looks like they’re headed for a new launch attempt, but they don’t have that license yet.
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