
SpaceX's Starship SN4 prototype explodes after rocket engine test - executive
https://twitter.com/bubbaprog/status/1266451354861686784
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mrDmrTmrJ
Love to see SpaceX experimenting like this. What's so cool is they've
specifically increased the rate of prototype construction (now reported at
around one every two weeks) to allow them to increase the aggressiveness of
their testing:

[https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace/status/1266446536772407296](https://twitter.com/SciGuySpace/status/1266446536772407296)

More prototypes -> More OK to blow them up -> More audacious testing -> Faster
learning and faster progress.

Experimentation is good. Fast experimentation is better! So many people talk
about "moving fast", we need to celebrate SpaceX for actually embodying this
idea.

Bravo!

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Giorgi
What's with the negativity in the comments? all tesla shorters or is it a
factory opening fallout?

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areoform
It is amazing to live in an era where experiments in spaceflight are the norm.
However, it is important to note that the Boca Chica facility is in a natural
preserve and wildlife corridor,
[https://www.fws.gov/refuge/Lower_Rio_Grande_Valley/visit/boc...](https://www.fws.gov/refuge/Lower_Rio_Grande_Valley/visit/boca_chica_beach.html)
, and that when SpaceX started they promised that they wouldn't disturb the
locals nor the wildlife. Promises that haven't been kept.

Sadly, SpaceX has behaved like an irresponsible corporate neighbor and is
interested in using eminent domain to force the residents to leave. What will
happen to the wildlife is something that still isn't clear,

> SpaceX can’t force the residents to leave, but the county can. In 2013,
> county commissioners established a corporation “to assist in the promotion
> and development of a spaceport project” in Cameron County. Under Texas law,
> the corporation has the authority to exercise the same right that lets
> governments take over private property and compensate its owners. When we
> met, Treviño, the county judge, told me that while he sympathizes with the
> residents, the use of eminent domain in Boca Chica Village is “probably a
> distinct possibility.” The law is on SpaceX’s side. A 2005 Supreme Court
> ruling expanded the definition of public use, the legal justification for
> eminent domain, to include economic development, and since then, states have
> taken advantage of that leeway: Texas, for instance, claimed dozens of homes
> to make room for a new stadium for the Dallas Cowboys. “That is something,
> unfortunately, that happens way more than it should,” Renée Flaherty, an
> attorney at the Institute for Justice, a nonprofit law firm in Washington,
> D.C., told me.

> Flaherty first heard about Boca Chica in the fall. “Those people were
> already there and [SpaceX] brought a nuisance to them, and now it’s
> escalated to the point where the nuisance is so severe that they’re telling
> them that they have to leave their own property,” said Flaherty, a Texas
> native herself. If the county moves ahead with legal proceedings, she
> believes that the remaining residents would have a case for eminent-domain
> abuse.

\-
[https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/02/space-x-...](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/02/space-
x-texas-village-boca-chica/606382/)

If SpaceX wants to blow up rockets, they should be able to do so in a
depopulated area that doesn't have species that are uniquely sensitive to
explosions. There are at least fifty species of avifauna that exist nowhere
else in the contiguous United States, it is an absolutely unique habitat for
these birds as well as sea turtles that had been left unexploited and open to
nature until SpaceX moved its operations, seeking a site closest to the the
equator within CONUS.

I was initially skeptical of the importance of this site, but when the FAA
initially granted them permission for this site, it assumed that such testing
would not occur. SpaceX has expanded beyond this remit and is conducting
extensive testing close to the habitat of several endangered species.

> Caught in the middle of this debate are the managers of the wildlife refuge,
> who, as public officials, may find themselves in the unenviable position of
> putting the brakes on a deal that the governor’s office and local
> politicians hope will be sealed sometime this summer. “We are here to manage
> the refuge for the wildlife,” explains Robert Jess, a project leader at the
> refuge. This swath of the Valley is home to a variety of animals, such as
> the Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, the aplomado falcon, and the piping plover,
> that are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. The refuge
> scientists must balance their criticism of SpaceX with their obligations to
> their agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which asserts that,
> despite increased traffic, high fences, bright lights, and possible fuel
> spills, the launchpad is likely to pose no persistent threat to endangered
> species.

> On a blustery February morning, with the surf pounding the nearby beach,
> Jess paces the shoulder of Highway 4 and gestures to an expanse of dunes,
> tidal flats, and coastal prairie, where survey stakes mark the 57 acres that
> Musk hopes to transform. “The footprint is small,” Jess says, “but the
> potential impacts are hard for us to even imagine. When it comes to the
> space program, we are behind the curve. Our fear is that we are missing some
> big questions we don’t even know to ask.”

\- [https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/the-battle-of-boca-
chi...](https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/the-battle-of-boca-chica/)

They modelled an occasional launch and a fuel spill, but they did not
anticipate such constant noise pollution that the site became inhabitable for
the humans as well.

I intend to become an astronaut. My username refers to the colonization of
Mars. But I intend to do so to gain a better understanding of this priceless
Blue Ball and to find life in places yet unseen. SpaceX's behavior goes
against these principles and against common decency and morality.

-

edit: A bad faith criticism against this point would be to say that there is
no such site that doesn't have some kind of wildlife on it. That is not true,
there are thousands of acres of land used for grazing, farming, and ranching.
As well as land that is regularly cleared for suburban development and is
understood to not be a unique habitat for endangered species. SpaceX can
deploy its resources to these sites. However, it chooses not to do so for the
meagre ∆v savings the site promises.

From an evidentiary standpoint, this map highlights working land in Texas,
including depleted land near the Ocean that would meet the requirements,
[https://www.txaglandtrust.org/wp-
content/uploads/2014/08/tex...](https://www.txaglandtrust.org/wp-
content/uploads/2014/08/texasmapimages.jpg)

These are the wildlife appraised portions of the state,
[https://tpwd.texas.gov/landwater/land/private/agricultural_l...](https://tpwd.texas.gov/landwater/land/private/agricultural_land/resources/WLAppraisalRegions_MinAcreage.jpg)
Along with the original resource,
[https://tpwd.texas.gov/landwater/land/private/agricultural_l...](https://tpwd.texas.gov/landwater/land/private/agricultural_land/)

There are plenty of other sites that satisfy the constraint. The only reason
why Boca Chica was chosen was due to its closeness to the Equator. A few
degrees upwards would not drastically change the ∆v savings acquired.
Furthermore, a launch site does not need to be the development site for a
rocket. They can test fire and develop rockets anywhere, including, say, farm
land in Kansas or other states.

edit 2: Interactive maps of non-ecological sites,
[https://tpwd.texas.gov/landwater/land/programs/landscape-
eco...](https://tpwd.texas.gov/landwater/land/programs/landscape-
ecology/team/) as you can verify for yourself, there are plenty of sites that
satisfy the constraints.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
That might be a pipe dream. Name a wild space (outside human development) that
can satisfy that rule?

~~~
areoform
This feels like a bad faith argument. Farm land, ranches, the land cleared for
suburban development. There are thousands of possible sites for such a place
in CONUS that wouldn't pose a threat to both the humans and the native fauna.

~~~
jimrandomh
There really aren't. You can build an engine test stand just about anywhere,
but to actually launch a rocket into most orbits, you need the ocean to the
east, and you need to be close to the equator. That means it has to be on
either the east coast of Texas or the east coast of Florida, neither of which
have much uninhabited land.

~~~
areoform
I have linked to maps above that show that you do not have to build in a
wildlife preserve. Just a few degrees upwards they can have depleted
agricultural land that is on sale for cheap.

The math on the ∆v savings suggests a paltry benefit for Boca Chica when
compared against these sites.

And yes, they should build that engine stand elsewhere.

~~~
patagurbon
The engine stand _is_ elsewhere. In farmland. McCarthy maybe? I can't
remember. It's also in Texas. All their Raptors and Merlin's are tested there.

