GET THE HIGH BOOTS: SPACE X HYPE GETS EVEN DEEPER

By Juan Montoya
Had enough of SpaceX yet?
Well, if you have, get set for another three days of SpaceX cheerleading by the likes of Gilbert Salinas, executive vice president of the Brownsville Economic Development Council, local Realtors, and the usual suspects.

For the last week, the readers of the former Freedom Newspapers (now AIM Newspapers), have been fielding a barrage of news copy singing the praises of millionaire Elon Musk as he seeks to wring as many "incentives" from local and state development funds to set up a launch pad on Boca Chica Beach for commercial satellites.

The series, they have threatened us, will continue until Sunday when, thankfully, it will fizzle to an end with, we're sure, a patronizing editorial urging the community to show Musk we love him and his company and will give him our first-born to set up shop here.

The economic-development boosters such as Salinas, county and state elected officials, have mouthed this hype to a gullible, but hungry and desperate public which has been enticed to support this giveaway with vision of million-dollar paydays and the thrusting of the area into the "cusp" of cutting-edge technological industry right here in good ol' Browntown.

To that end, they have perpetrated numerous "talking points" and near-truths that cannot be defended by intellectually-honest people.

Below are but a few of these "talking points":

1. That Brownsville's geographic position close to the equator so it can create a "slingshot" effect and save the SpaceX craft fuel to go into orbit (not space) gives it a foot up on other competitors such as Florida and Puerto Rico. "The location is ideal for a number of reasons. It allows for a launch over a vast body of water, in this case the Gulf of Mexico. It also is near the Equator and its gravitational field, providing a faster, more efficient “slingshot” launch that conserves fuel," Salinas told the Brownsville Herald's Emma Perez-Treviño.

-1. The last time we looked at the map, the location of the competing site in Puerto Rico is closer to the equator. In fact, Cape Canaveral, the other competitor, is less than three degrees in latitude than Brownsville (25.9014 to 28.4556) , a negligible difference. So much for geographic advantage.

2. "With 12 missions that are part of a $1.6 billion contract with NASA, and, among other contracts, a recently awarded NASA contract of $75 million to prepare Dragon for transporting astronauts into space, SpaceX sits on a total of $4 billion in launch contracts." Brownsville Herald

-2. SpaceX Email Newsletter: Aug. 23, 2012
"On Thursday, August 23, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden visited SpaceX's main hangar at Launch Complex 40 in Cape Canaveral, Fla., to announce that SpaceX has officially entered NASA's Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program.
Under this program, SpaceX is contracted for 12 cargo resupply flights to the International Space Station. The company is currently preparing its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft for the first of these official cargo resupply flights, and is targeting an October launch from Cape Canaveral."
SpaceX's Brownsville operation will not be related (at all) to the company's operations in Cape Canaveral or to NASA.It is also not related (at all) to the December 2008 NASA announcement that SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon Spacecraft were contracted to resupply the International Space Station (ISS). The $1.6 billion contract represents a minimum of 12 flights, with an option to order additional missions for a cumulative total contract value of up to $3.1 billion."
In fact, NASA has nothing to do with the local project. SpaceX will not fire NASA missions from Brownsville, despite the pipe dreams of BEDC gurus.
It also will not send manned spacecraft to the ISS, the moon, or for that matter, Mars, despite the comments of Bob Lancaster, President of the Texas Space Alliance during the cheerleading session (the FAA hearing on the EIS).
The reason is simple. In order to reach the ISS whose orbit is inclined at 51.6 degrees, the launch azimuth from Brownsville would be approximately 42 degrees, which would take the craft over populated land masses, a no-no in FAA regulations.
"It is exciting to think that you will be able to see the launch of a manned space misson to Mars," Lancaster said to wild applause.
Not to be.
Instead, it is to be a minor launch site where SpaceX will program launches of limited commercial payloads (communications, weather satellites, etc.) for private customers that could include foreign states or other businesses, not NASA.
But this does not stop BEDC's Salinas from repeating this impossibility as an opportunity for Brownsville to send off astronauts from Boca Chica.
"Musk," the Herald article today states, "whose dreams of space flight were inspired by the “Star Wars” films, is not content to merely shoot satellites into space and supply space stations. His goal, according to the company, is to “revolutionize space transportation and ultimately make it possible for people to live on other planets.”
"Now that the shuttle program is history and the way has been cleared for private space transport — with SpaceX leading the way — NASA has more time to spend on exploring Mars and beyond.
“What’s funny is that Elon Musk wants to do the same thing,” Salinas said. “It’s just a matter of who you think is going to get there first. Imagine, if we could do that from here.”

From Boca Chica Beach to Mars? Please explain how. If and when their EIS is approved, the 12 launches noted above will not take off from here. In fact, SpaceX has repeated its plans for those 12 flights more than once.
On July 30, 2012, SpaceX's fabulous PR machine stated thusly:

"On July 16, 2012, SpaceX received its first science mission from NASA Launch Services (NLS), to launch the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Jason-3 spacecraft.
NASA contracts launch services for science missions, which include launching the agency’s planetary, Earth-observing, exploration and scientific satellites, as well as satellites for other government agencies such as NOAA, into orbit.
The Jason-3 spacecraft, the third in a series that follows the Ocean Surface Topography Mission, will precisely measure sea surface height and provide data used around the world for weather, climate and ocean forecasts.

This is SpaceX’s third category of NASA award, with the company also holding awards to carry cargo to the space station and to start to prepare the Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to carry astronauts.
Additionally, SpaceX has continued to secure satellite contracts, with nearly 60 percent of upcoming missions planned for commercial customers. These include AsiaSat, Asia Broadcast Satellite, SatMex and Intelsat, announced earlier this year.
SpaceX expects to launch Jason-3 aboard its Falcon 9 rocket in late 2014, from SpaceX’s launch and landing site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.

3. With the coming of SpaceX, hundreds of papita-paying jobs will rain from the sky.
Fernando Del Valle
Valley Morning Star
"The company’s decision to launch from Boca Chica would create as many as 600 jobs, largely engineering positions with an average annual salary of $70,000. And spinoff development could create some 400 jobs in construction and logistics."
Brownsville Herald
"If SpaceX does locate in Cameron County, the base $80 million capital investment also would bring about 600 jobs, with a minimum annual salary of $55,000, according to BEDC. It is not certain how many of those jobs would be hired locally, but estimates have ranged from 200 to 300."
"BEDC cites a potential annual payroll here of about $71 million".

"SpaceX has more than 1,800 employees combined at its headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif., its launch facilities at the Air Force Station at Cape Canaveral and the Reagan Test Site at U.S. Army Kwajalein Atoll, its rocket development facility in McGregor, and offices in Chantilly, Va., Huntsville, Ala., and Washington, D.C."

“It would provide the opportunity for employment at multiple levels from aerospace assemblers to engineers and computer scientists,” Irv Downing said. “That additional diversity of employment opportunity would clearly benefit the regional economy.

“The potential for further developing our human capital resources to meet the range of demands SpaceX would have is particularly exciting.”

“The economic impact and the opportunity that it would provide is tremendous, not including the spin-off effect. We anticipate that quite a few companies would be coming in to support SpaceX operations, and as we see it, they are going to set up shop in southern Cameron County. There is only one way in and one way out of the site (Highway 4) and they ultimately would go through Brownsville,” Salinas said."

-3. (Now, if SpaceX has a total of 1,800 employees in its entire ISS and manned-flight operations in Floraida and California, how can a simple launch pad in Cameron County generate 600 (one-third) of its total workforce?)

So now we have some boosters saying that it will require 200 to 300 jobs, others saying ti would generate 400 to 500, 600, and now even 700. Which is it? Or do they know?

4. Salinas anticipates that such a project would attract 10,000 to 13,000 visitors to the area.

"Each rocket launch could attract as many as 10,000 tourists to Cameron County, increasing bookings at Harlingen’s Valley International Airport and helping to fill area hotels and restaurants. If SpaceX does in fact decide to blast off from Boca Chica Beach, area leaders say, the company could ignite area economies with support businesses and a housing boom."

“That is a whole bunch of people that would be coming in. That in itself would be a huge boom to the area. Everybody in Cameron County would benefit,” he said. BEDC estimates the economic impact for the area, per launch, at $1 million. Each launch would attract from 40 to 60 engineers, technicians and scientists for 30-day stays and a constant flow of suppliers to do business with SpaceX."

"Each rocket launch could attract as many as 10,000 tourists to Cameron County, increasing bookings at Harlingen’s Valley International Airport and helping to fill area hotels and restaurants." "If SpaceX does in fact decide to blast off from Boca Chica Beach, area leaders say, the company could ignite area economies with support businesses and a housing boom."

-4. By now we all know that every economic and tourism development entity claims credit for putting "heads on beds" in their annual plea for funds. Does Salinas include their efforts in his projections? Or can his claims be independently verified by anyone else but BEDC?

5. We don't need no stinking water! A benign lie about infrastructure and a cunning comparison of the Boca Chica flights to Apollo and Shuttle craft days (both manned spacecraft).

"Water would be trucked to the site and stored in a water tank, as it is for nearby residents at Boca Chica Village. “Their water needs are simple,” he said. A septic tank system would be adequate for their requirements, he said.

“The beauty of this project is that they would be building in proximity to State Highway 4,” Salinas said, noting also the availability of State Highway 550 and Farm-to-Market 511, along with looming development of the East Loop project and I-69 corridor to meet increased transportation needs.

“We have come a long way since the Apollo and space shuttle days,” Salinas said. “You no longer need the huge infrastructure to launch. SpaceX provides a more affordable and efficient way of launching.”

-5. The water to Boca Chica Village is trucked there through an agreement with the residents and Cameron County. One would think that the water amounts needed for fire-suppressant purposes and to wash down the launch site would be of necessity much greater and would require highly-pressurized output. Neither the amounts nor the water pressure is available there. Will the local entities be required to provide the infrastructure necessary for their needs?

6. "Elon Musk is a millionaire. SpaceX is doing it all on their own. We don't need a penny from you. And look at the benefits you'll be getting, you ingrates."

“That is one step closer to getting us an interstate, a highway into Cameron County. If we were to get a company that would come in and create much-needed, skilled jobs that would help alleviate the unemployment and underemployment that exists in Cameron County, it would be a tremendous injection into our economy,” Cameron County Administrator Pete Sepulveda said.

-6. "Today, as the environmental assessment continues, state, county, and local entities continue their work on developing an incentive package that will be not just attractive to SpaceX, but competitive with other sites under consideration, Salinas said.

“It is one thing to hook a project, but it is a totally separate and different thing to close the deal,” Salinas said. “We know that there is interest on their part. We see that we’re the best place for it. But that means that there is still plenty of work to do.”

“From the county’s standpoint, it is a joint effort of the state of Texas, Cameron County, BEDC and the city of Brownsville. If we can facilitate any of the infrastructures or any of the other components that need to be in place, we are willing to assume that role,” he said."