There is no environmental show in SpaceX’s plans to launch a new giant rocket into orbit from South Texas, the Federal Aviation Administration said Monday.
An environmental assessment by the agency has concluded that SpaceX’s plans for orbital launches will have “no significant impact” on the Gulf Coast region near Brownsville, Texas. But the FAA also requires the company to take more than 75 actions to minimize the impact on surrounding areas as it begins flights of Starship, a vehicle that is critical to NASA’s plans to return to the Moon, as well as for Elon Musk’s vision. , the founder and CEO of the company, to colonize Mars.
The actions that Mr. Musk must take include a warning of releases, monitoring vegetation and wildlife by a biologist, coordinating with state and federal agencies to remove remnants of sensitive habitat release, and adjusting lighting to reduce the impact on wildlife and a nearby beach.
The mitigation measures required by the FAA also restrict the closure of a road that passes through the SpaceX site during launches so that people can visit the nearby beach, park and wildlife refuge. The agency said the highway could not be closed on public holidays and no more than five weekends a year.
The decision means a more comprehensive environmental impact statement is not needed, which would probably have added years to the project. This decision frustrated some members of the community.
“Saying there is no significant impact is ridiculous,” said Jim Chapman, a board member of Save RGV, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group that aims to protect the Rio Grande Valley. “The impacts are just too great. We still feel that way. The FAA should have recognized that.”
Chapman said he hoped his group could file a lawsuit to force a more complete environmental review. And SpaceX still needs to get an FAA license for the launches.
The SpaceX site is located in a small town called Boca Chica, which the company has named Starbase.
There, for several years now, SpaceX has been working on Starship, a stainless steel giant that would be the most powerful rocket ever. Along with a reinforcement stage, it will be nearly 400 feet tall, taller than the Statue of Liberty and its pedestal.
It will also be, unlike any previous orbital rocket, fully reusable. This has the potential to greatly reduce the cost of sending payloads into orbit: less than $ 10 million to carry 100 tons into space, said Mr. Musk.
The Boca Chica site offers several factors that make it a favorable place to launch rockets into orbit. Except for the bottom of the Florida peninsula, it is as far south as the continental United States. For many missions, a launch pad closer to the equator helps travel into orbit by adding the Earth’s rotational speed to the rocket’s speed.
The launch path passes over the water, away from populated areas, minimizing the risk to people on land.
But other creatures live in the surrounding wetlands, including Kemp’s endangered ocelots and sea turtles. State Highway 4, which passes next to the SpaceX site, also passes Boca Chica Beach, Texas State Parks, and the Lower Rio Grande National Wildlife Refuge. Environmentalists fear that a steady stream of spacecraft launches with explosions of thunderous noises and rocket escape, as well as possible explosive setbacks, will disrupt the ecosystem.
SpaceX plans for Boca Chica to affect the environment: start up a natural gas plant to supply fuel to Starship; install a solar farm; build car parks; the construction of processing facilities that will carry the Starship cargo; and perform more test flights, which increase the likelihood of additional test explosions that can send debris and shock waves for miles.
The site has also created an economic debate. Many officials and residents welcome the influx of money and prestige that SpaceX is bringing to the Brownsville area, where about a third of people live below the poverty line. But others are concerned that gentrification will drive out longtime residents.
In 2014, the FAA gave SpaceX environmental permission to test and launch its smaller Falcon 9. In the last two years, the Falcon 9 has become the most frequently launched rocket on the planet. But SpaceX never launched any from Boca Chica, but used its other locations in California and Florida.
And Starship is much larger than the Falcon 9, a spacecraft stacked on top of a giant propeller called Super Heavy, with greater impacts on surrounding areas.
Therefore, the FAA required a new environmental assessment before SpaceX could test the launch of Starship into orbit. During the first orbital test flight, the Super Heavy propeller would attempt a controlled landing in the Gulf of Mexico, while the Starship stage would attempt to land in the Pacific Ocean off Hawaii after flying into orbit.
The agency released a draft of the document in September that did not suggest any major hurdles that would require SpaceX to prepare a full environmental impact statement. He planned to release a final version in late December, but delayed the date several times, citing the need to consider 18,000 comments on the preliminary document.
In an update to the Starship program in February, Mr. Musk said he hoped the FAA would soon give the green light to SpaceX to continue. “We’ve received a rough indication that there may be approval in March,” he said. Musk.
This did not happen, but Mr. Musk at the time said an orbital launch attempt could occur “a couple of months” after approval. The company has not yet announced an updated release schedule based on Monday’s decision.
SpaceX also plans to launch spacecraft from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
In addition to possible trips to Mars, Starship will be used by NASA to transport astronauts from orbit around the Moon to its surface. The company won a $ 2.9 billion contract for the mission, beating two other bidders: Blue Origin, the rocket company founded by Jeff Bezos of Amazon, and defense contractor Dynetics. Landing on the moon is scheduled, on paper, for 2025, but is expected to be delayed. In addition to working on Starship, the return of astronauts to the moon requires the Space Launch System, another major rocket under development by NASA that is also lagging behind.