Thursday, January 2, 2014

IF A SPACEX FACILITY HAD AN EXPLOSION AND NO ONE HEARD IT...WOULD A NESTING SEA TURTLE?

(We got this news item a little late from a Rrun-Rrun fan upstate and we thought we'd share it because as far as we can tell, there was not much local coverage in the local media. The company in question is SpaceX, which has shown some interest in building a commercial satellite launch pad near Boca Chica Beach. There has been some concerns about the facility's impact on endangered species, especially nesting sea turtles. As it is, when the county beach cleanup crews go pick up litter, they have to call a Texas Parks and Wildlife spotter to walk ahead of them and prevent them from disturbing their habitat. What would the impact on these and other animals would an explosion like the one described in the Nov. 27 article below be? Our thanks to our contributor.)
MCGREGOR, Texas (KXAN) - An explosion at the SpaceX rocket development facility rattled the Central Texas town of McGregor late Tuesday night.
McGregor residents reported feeling two large tremors that felt like earthquakes just before 10:30 p.m.
The McLennan County Sheriff's Office posted a report on Facebook saying, "Anyone that heard the loud boom
and felt a rumble outside of McGregor can rest easy. It was two nitrogen filled tanks that over pressurized
and ruptured at Space X. Sources are saying no one was injured."

Space in a statement Wednesday afternoon said that at blast originated "from the structural test area where we were running slosh baffle testing and is likely the result of over-pressurized gas."
"No one sustained injuries and SpaceX teams continue work today on site as planned," the statement said.
"SpaceX will identify root cause of the incident and make any adjustments necessary to avoid this kind of
disturbance to the McGregor community going forward.
"SpaceX places the highest value on safety. The situation provided SpaceX the opportunity to test our standard response protocols in conjunction with the local law enforcement and fire departments. All established protocols worked as expected."
SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches spacecraft. The company is based in California.
It has contracts with NASA to deliver shipments to the International Space Station. On May 25, 2012, SpaceX made history as the first commercial company to launch and dock a vehicle to the International Space Station.
SpaceX also hopes to develop reusable rockets and build the world's first commercial spaceport in South Texas, near Brownsville.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for keepig us updated. The local press is sleeping.

Anonymous said...

The local press is always asleep. Catarino Garza abandoned his family from Palito Blanco,Tx. Near SanDiego . He initiated the first revolt against President Porfirio Diaz. La Revolucion de Garza was quickly defeated. He was last seen in a bar in La Havana by my g. Father. He quickly left thru the back door and was never seen again. It is said he was killed en las playas de Costa Rica fomenting A Revolution.

Joaquin said...

I find it laughable you're using a useless turtle to argue against Space X. You've done a great job of pointing out the economic impact will not be positive like they've lead us to believe. I don't get why you would waste your time with such a sophmoric argument.

rita