If you want to launch Starship from Texas, here's some homework, FAA tells SpaceX SpaceX is one step closer to securing a permit to launch not just its first rocket from Boca Chica, Texas but its reusable super-heavy lifter at that. And by one step closer, we mean: the US Federal Aviation Administration has issued more than 75 requirements for SpaceX to fulfill, which are aimed at minimizing the …
They've been gearing up to launch these things from the Cape for a while... however NASA has just expressed concerns regarding the potential impact of a Super Heavy launch/landing failure on the facilities currently used by SpaceX to service the ISS. Putting those out of action is not an option so they'll need to sort that out too.
I was thinking of places perhaps somewhat further afield.
I have always felt that the islands off the coast of Equatorial Guinea would be a good location for a space port. True one would be launching over continental Africa. But the areas east of this location are very sparsely populated.
Alternatively, somewhere like Madagascar or Ceylon perhaps..
Though I do not think that the US government (Or indeed other Governments) would be too happy at such a move.
After all, remember what happened to OTRAG?
NASA has just started launching a few things from the Arnhem Space Centre in the Northern Territory, Australia.
Given AUKUS, the US defence base in Darwin (Chinese port) and the bloody great expanse (yes islands/people) of Pacific off to the right (east) perhaps Biden would allow Elon could relocate his shenanigans here.
Any RUD compliant starships will likely just land in the fields of hematite^ from whence they were borne, completing the circle
^actually, it’s several thousands of kilometres away, but Australia.. days drive mate :)
A better, and closer, location would be Ascension Island. One could build the components on the east/gulf coast of the US, ship and assemble them at a pad that's only seven degrees north of the equator. So the vehicle would get almost all of the earths spin for liftoff.
Its complicated because there are tons of rules about US registered companies, space tech & launching effectively gigantic V2 rockets, that makes the federal government unhappy if you tried to launch from another country. And SpaceX want a happy federal government so that arms like NASA & the DoD work with them to give them contracts to fly astronauts or satellites on the stuff that's proven from KSC.
None of this report is deal breaking for Boca Chica as a launch development site, most of it is simply be a good neighbor, clean up your trash, dont make a mess stuff, take care of the wildlife. The write a report on the history of the civil war is probably the weirdest requirement theyve got to fulfil.
The rest of it seemed fairly reasonable if just to codify the expectations on SpaceX on how they operate down there.
By the time theyve proven reliable flight capability for the system, the KSC launch facility will be ready and they can swap to that for multiple launch cadence operations.
several things :
- It's almost as far south as you can get in Continental US so it's nearer to the Equator than Cape Canaveral.
- The NASA is worried of a (few ) rapid unplanned disassembly and does not want it's precious launchpads wrecked by one.
- having a Space X launch site would make them fully independant of NASA for launch schedule and other things.
Being south only really matters for GSO, sun-synchronous polar orbits for Earth observation or Starlink clusters don't benefit so much.
SpaceX can build their own pad fairly easily and the Cape's facilities are spread out enough to handle a SaturnV oppsie
I suspect avoiding NASA is the big draw. If you are used to a Shuttle launch/year then all your internal procedures and dealings with local authorities are on this time scale - SpaceX don't want to work with this or have their people catch "Nasa"
NasaSpaceFlight had a 5hour livestream on youtube about this last night.
Nearly all of the 75 mitigations are already being done by SpaceX or are extremely trivial as in 'pay an organisation to put up 5 signs'...
It's more a case of "let's get the rules established for SpacePorts early and in writing to head off the lawsuits".
There is that too.
For the time being lobbing rockets up to space has been done from governmental controlled tracts of land ( Cape Canaveral, Vandenberg, Kourou, Pleseks, Baykonour, Woomera, [add the Indian, Chine, Japanese ones] )
But the Boca Chica facility is going to be a private launch facility, and there's no rules for that... yet.
So setting the rules around those facilities seems sensible... since at some point more will appear.
The FAA is also aware that it is an issue of competing on a world stage too. If the USA behaves in a way that discourages private space port operations, then companies are more likely to move to other countries. Plenty of countries would love that investment.
So, realistically, these mitigations are part of the process of ensuring things stay in the USA as well. They're certainly not to make it too onerous to implement.
I'm pretty sure that Japan, Korea, Germany can make steel - it's also quite shippable, that's why the US Army doesn't need to make its tanks next door to the Rheinmetal factory.
SpaceX is the most easily relocatable space company - that's part of its business model.
It makes everything in house from commercial parts so its a lot less vulnerable to EAR than than people were in the 90s.
If major market X demands that you build/launch from their territory to access their market - SpaceX can do that.
If a future US administration get uncooperative then a S. African citizen can make rockets with in-house parts made on German machine tools with Taiwanese chips and Chinese carbon fibre and build and launch from anywhere that offers the best terms
The USA imported 26.3m metric tonnes of steel in 2019, and exported 7.1m metric tonnes.
So, yes, steel can very easily be shipped.
Not to mention, China is the world's largest steel maker, followed by India, Japan, USA, Russia, S Korea, Turkey, Germany etc...
Raw materials are not going to be the reason SpaceX stays in the USA. They are a relatively minor part of the cost of flying their rockets.
Sea Turtle nesting season runs from March to October! I know that Florida has strict regulations about showing ANY nighttime lights visible from the beach during that period. Texas probably has something similar. Even walking on the beach with a flashlight is discouraged. The hatchlings look for the reflection of the Moon on the water to tell them which way to dash to safety in the waves before a bird gets them. Any light from the other direction will lead them astray.
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