MUSK CHANGING BOCA CHICA PLANS? TO MARS, AND BEYOND...

By Juan Montoya
Elated over the success of his Falcon Heavy rocket launch from Cape Canaveral, billionaire Elon Musk says that the development of an even bigger rocket – the Big Falcon Rocket – to send humans to Mars, may take place in the mud flats off Boca Chica Beach.

Oh, yeah.

And Cameron County officials, who take Musk at his word despite not seeing one satellite launch from the mounds of dirt where a commercial vertial launch pad was supposed to start in 2013, have already granted him tax abatements and made $15 to $20 milion in incentives available to him.

Ditto for the state and federal governments.

Now the Rocket Man is saying the Big Show at Boca Chica will start in, say, 2020. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Furthermore, county officials – in anticipation of Musk's Big Bang – have broken ground on a new $6.2 million amphitheater that will seat 4,000 so they can watch Elon's rockets send commercial satellites into orbit around the earth. But before that, Musk is asking Texas for another $5 million rom the state to adddress what SpaceX mouthpiece Rep. Rene Oliveira calls SpaceX's intentions for Boca Chica to go "well beyond the original plan."

Well, what the "34-year veteran" lawmaker who is running for reelection doesn't say is that Musk wants more money despite the fact that he hasn't delivered one job to Brownsville or Cameron County after spending more than $3 million.

Musk is a smart cookie. He began pouring money into the campaigns of key state lawmakers. On November 7, 2012, he donated 1,000 to Oliveira and two weeks later, he gave state senator Eddie Lucio Jr. (D) $2,000.

The next month, the Associated Press reported that Lucio and Oliveira were working to secure state backing for a potential SpaceX launch pad in Brownsville.

Oliveira said he was "sensitive to the fact that these are taxpayer dollars that we should still be reasonable with how much we offer." But he worried that other states were offering more generous packages of incentives.

He and Lucio looked to replenish the coffers of the spaceport fund in order to lure Musk’s company to the state. "I think that we'll be able to convince our colleagues that this will be a good thing for all of Texas," Lucio told the AP. Lucio and Oliveira eventually secured a $15 million budget rider authorizing funds specifically designated for use by SpaceX.
http://freebeacon.com/politics/political-clout-pays-off-big-for-elon-musks-spacex/

The newest wrinkle to the Musk siren song for the Boca Chica site is that he plans to use it – or in the alternative, ship to ship –  to practice short hopper flights with the spaceship part of the BFR followed by controlled landings back on the launchpad.

"We'll either do that at our South Texas launch site, or do it ship to ship," Musk is quoted telling the news media in a press conference. "We're not sure yet whether ship to ship or Brownsville, but most likely ist's going to happen at our Brownsville location, because we've got a lot of land with nobody around, and so if it blows up, it's cool."

Sure, if it blows up it will be five miles where the thousands of tourists who are expected to fill the new amphitheater will be craning their necks to see the cohete take off, where LNG terminals will be condensing natural gas, and where redfish and shrimp larvae are breeding in the pristine wetlands and the hypersaline laguna. Never mind the endangered local species and migrating fowl feed and nest there. Tha's not cool.

But the testing of this as-of-yet unbuilt new rocket here is something new.

When Musk came around to sell the local yokels on the idea of launching humans to Mars from Boca Chica, his application to the FFA mentioned nothing of the sort. The applications merely started that SpaceX planned to launch a rocket a month carrying commercial satellites fro private customers and foreign countries.

It also stated – despite claims by the Brownsville Economic Development Council and Brownsville mayor Tony Martinez – that Spavex expected to create no more than 200 to 300 permanent jobs over the next 10 years.

That was supposed to start in 2013. To date, no rockets have been launched and there is nothing resembling a vertical launch pad out at Boca Chica.

EIS SpaceX submitted to the FAA:
Approximately 30 full-time SpaceX employees/contractors would be present at the vertical launch area and/or control center area in 2013 (2015? now?)... During a launch campaign, an additional 100 local or transient workers would be working at the vertical launch area and/or control center area. During launch campaigns, the additional workers could work extended hours; however, 2 days prior to launch, full-time SpaceX employees/contractors and the local or transient workers would need to be on-site for up to 24 hours per day. Staffing on-site would return to normal levels (approximately 30 full-time SpaceX employees/contractors) within a day or two after the actual launch. 

Table 2.1-2 shows the number of full-time SpaceX employees/contractors working on site plus the local/transient workers necessary during launch campaigns that would be present between 2013 and 2022.
Table 2.1-2. Personnel for Proposed SpaceX Texas Launch Site Operations

Year                      Full-time SpaceX                                   Full-time SpaceX
                            Employees/Contractors                           Employees/Contractors plus
                               Working On-Site                           Additional Local/Transient Workers
                                                                                         during Launch Campaigns

2013                                          30                                                       130
2014                                          75                                                       175
2015                                         100                                                      200
2016                                         100                                                      200
2017                                         110                                                      210
2018                                         130                                                      230
2019                                         150                                                      250
2020                                         150                                                      250
2021                                         150                                                      250
2022                                         150                                                      250

Now the talk is about launching manned spaceflights to Mars from the mud flats out there?

Perhaps it's about time that our star-struck local elected officials get their noses out of the constellations and got their feet back on the ground instead of being led by the nose by this Space Siren and his songs of space travel.