SPACEX REALITY CHECK: EXACTLY WHERE ARE WE? AND WHAT ON EARTH IS OLIVEIRA TALKING ABOUT?

"We're all built up with progress.

But sometimes I must confess.

We can deal with rockets and dreams.

But reality, what does it mean?"

Curtis Mayfield, Fred is Dead

By Juan Montoya

Somewhere on the lonely stretch of Highway 4 to Boca Chica, the SpaceX bandwagon was transformed into a steam roller.

For more than a year now, the local Brownsville Economic Development Corporation – known for its penchant to throw good money after bad – has been meeting "in confidence (secret)" with state official and legislators who are trying to convince the commercial space launch company to consider a site off Boca Chica Beach for its satellite launch facility.

The consultations have continued and – after rejecting the offer of state land – the company says it has acquired an option to buy acreage about three miles north of the Rio Grande River and five miles south of South Padre Island for its proposed facility.

And, its spokesmen added, Brownsville is one of three sites it is considering. The Federal Aviation Administration's public hearing for its Environmental Impact Statement application is running concurrent with the applications by SpaceX for the EIS in the other two sites, one in existing launch area at Cape Canaveral and the other in a site in Puerto Rico.

The fact that the local site will undoubtedly be hotly opposed by the conservationists groups such as the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, Nature Conservancy, Ridley Turtle advocates, etc., doesn't seem to faze its supporters, many of who turned out to lobby the FAA-hired firm to show the backing of the community.

The day prior to the hearing on the EIS, a meeting was held by invitation only at the main offices of Fred Rusteberg's International Bank of Commerce (IBC) where participants were prepped for the upcoming meet. All the usual suspects were there, including those who spoke at the top of the meeting.

When people arrived at the table to sign up and voice their concerns, they found that the first 50 or so spots on the program were already filled by elected officials the likes of Brownsville Mayor Tony Martinez, Cameron County Judge Carlos Cascos, State Rep. Rene Oliveira, the Chamber of Commerce, the BEDC's CEO Jason HIlts, etc. There was even a spot saved for a student at UTB who said he was into pulsar research and that he would love to return to Brownsville and work for SpaceX.

This was, we grudgingly admit, touching, and a tour de force by the orchestrators of the meeting. Even commissioner Jessica Tetrau-Kalifa's combo dress-up with her son in a blue NASA jumpsuit could not touch the student's plea to be allowed to go home again.

Unfortunately, SpaceX is not interested in one pulsar (or three, for that matter) spinning faster than the speed of light hundreds of light years away.

SpaceX wants a bare bones, nuts-and-bolts launch pad on private property to launch small satellite payloads for commercial clients for hard cold cash. And if they can't get that here, they can easily get it elsewhere.

In Florida, for example, all it would take would be the construction of an additional launch pad on an existing site that already has FAA approval.

So what are they doing here? Will they catch the attention of the Florida and Puerto Rico competitors for the site by showing that Brownsville residents will give away the farm (and maybe a first-born) to have them come here if they don't up the ante?

It is interesting to note that at least one legislator took the opportunity to hitch his election campaign to the SpaceX star.
Rene Oliveira, in the fight of his life against newcomer Alex Dominguez for District 35, took the opportunity to enumerate the services he has performed for the space exploration industry. For example, he said that in 1998 he had introduced a bill to facilitate the construction of space ports in Texas. He failed, unfortunately, to convince his colleagues to pass the legislation, but in the following year, a majority approved a similar bill.

Before we give Rene a standing ovation and run to the polls to cast our admiring vote, we should note that the only one thing wrong with that is that SpaceX is not saying it wants to build a space port here. It is a launch station.

Oliveira went on to say he had passed legislation to limit the liability to space-industry firms (and his insurance buddies who contribute to his campaigns) if one of the tourism space travelers should be injured during potential flight to near space.

Did we mention that SpaceX is not applying for a permit to launch manned space flights from Boca Chica?

He then topped it off with the claim that he had procured $3.2 million to get the site "shovel ready" for SpaceX from the Texas Enterprise Fund.

As Jim Barton in his http://www.meanmisterbrownsville.blogspot/ stated:

"Rene Oliveira that the State of Texas has committed $3,200,000 to get the launch pad site 'shovel ready.' Wrong, wrong, wrong! Just the opposite. Notice a portion of a letter from Rene Oliveira's own Chief of Staff J.J. Garza:

"As of today, SpaceX has filed with federal officials a letter stating SpaceX’s intent to prepare an environmental impact study on the Boca Chica Beach site. From what we can tell, several federal agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Game, and the Federal Aviation Administration, will have to evaluate and clear the project from an environmental and safety standpoint before it can proceed...The State of Texas, through the Enterprise Fund, has committed $3.2 million to the Boca Chica Beach site that SpaceX can access when the site becomes “shovel ready.”

This, as Barton said, is the opposite of what Oliveira said. Once the EPA, the Fish and Game Department, the FAA all "evaluate and clear" the project, and SpaceX gets the site "shovel ready," then the State of Texas will commit the $3.2 million.

We might mention here that the FAA has never granted anyone (including NASA) a Certificate of Waiver or Authorization for powered flight over populated land masses over the continental United States (CONUS). No one has ever attempted to "thread the needle" with a rocket between Florida and Cuba which would be necessary for the project at Boca Chica to be viable.

But, on the slim chance that all the hurdles are cleared and SpaceX is allowed to set up shop here, the company wants to start doing business with one or two launches a year at the beginning and then "ramp up" to perhaps once a month in the span of 10 years.

By then our pulsar-driven student will be in his thirties, young Tetrau-Kalifa may be in high school and will need a new jumpsuit, and the economic developers may have assured their job security and retirement benefits.