The California Coastal Commission has no authority over a Federal (Military) launch range so there's no need for real concern. Yes using people's personal opinions for denial is illegal, but it's moot regardless. So I'm not sure SpaceX could sue for any damages.
Burt Rutan, one of the most legendary aerospace engineers of all time used to do regular long presentations to people on why global warming was not man made. Some of them are archived on youtube. And there's many other cases of otherwise smart people having bonkers opinions in areas outside of what they are experts in. If anything, successful people are significantly more likely to do this. It rarely results in their downfall.
They do this every launch unfortunately. Youtube seems completely inept at stopping them. They make enough money to hire hundreds of thousands of fake accounts to subscribe.
No damage was significant done to the wildlife near the launch pad in any previous launch, at least no more than is done to the wildlife during any launch that happens anywhere in the world.
They only destroyed the pad on the very first launch. The pad has taken no notable damage during any of the subsequent three launches between that one and this one (this is the 5th launch).
The combustion products of Methane and Oxygen are Water and Carbon Dioxide so there is nothing to damage the nearby areas.
> They are basically completely dismissing government oversight as "unnecessary obstacles to progress".
SpaceX works quite well with the government and doesn't mind oversight with regards to safety at all. What they don't care for is frivolous oversight/bureaucratic rubber stamping without looking at the intention behind the rules. They also don't like being surprised last minute. All of which happened in the prelude to that update post you referenced. I know a lot of people on this site are from Europe or have European sentiments, but the two places really function quite differently normally. The job of regulators isn't to be obstructionist for the sake of it. It's to create rules that actually improve safety and overall move society forward.
I understand the US and Europe work differently. Although I am European, I also have a strong dislike of bureaucracy and am sympathetic to advancing society through technological progress.
But there should be some oversight. You cannot just let a private company do whatever industrial processes wherever they want in the name of progress.
> cannot just let a private company do whatever industrial processes wherever they want in the name of progress
We don't.
The question was why the FAA was enforcing rules that have nothing to do with its remit. There is protocol of regulatory agencies having each others' backs. But it was silly in this situation—it probably calls for reviewing the regime.
Having a 60 days consultation with the Fish and Wildlife Service whether a falling hot-stage ring (essentially dumb steel piece) causes danger to fish is just silly.
> But there should be some oversight. You cannot just let a private company do whatever industrial processes wherever they want in the name of progress.
Then we're in agreement as is SpaceX and even Elon Musk. He's previously stated he's in favor of regulations in general. He just is against an overwhelming overbearing quantity of them that just exist because they've always been there.
> SpaceX works quite well with the government and doesn't mind oversight with regards to safety at all. What they don't care for is frivolous oversight/bureaucratic rubber stamping without looking at the intention behind the rules.
How could you possibly know this? There's no way an outsider can be privy to all of the details of this situation to make an objective call.
Looking at it from the outside it's obvious to me that one party has a financial interest while the other doesn't, and the party that has a financial interest is run by a person who is more than willing to misrepresent situations to his financial benefit.
SpaceX could be right in this situation but you and I will never know.
The physics of this game (on mechazilla.io) feels broken. If the rocket starts rotating it just keeps rotating which is not how physics works. The rocket from its motion would weather vane to it's velocity vector in reality, but it doesn't.
It feels intuitive to me. I think you need to consider gravity, if you've ever tried to balance a broom stick on one finger you get a similar effect, your finger is the thrust.
Accurately determine distance to objects in almost no time. While a human has 1 second reaction time. There will be situations a fast reaction time alone can save.
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