NPR
What Elon Musk has built on the remote mudflats at the southern tip of Texas is astonishing: gantries, fuel storage tanks, an Airstream trailer village, and a silver rocket straight out of Buck Rogers—all fronted by neon letters that spell out "Starbase."
But can SpaceX coexist with the original feathered inhabitants on the lower Gulf coast? Environmentalists from Brownsville to Washington D.C. are protesting his ambitious vision to build, test and launch next-generation rockets in this fragile ecosystem.
"It's 24/7. The lights are really bright out here at night. It's just constant sound and presence of people," says Stephanie Bilodeau, a conservation bird biologist with the non-profit Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program. "I wouldn't want to be nesting near any of this if I were a bird."
She comes out with her spotting scope four times a week to look for plovers and red knots. And she says since SpaceX moved in, these migratory shorebirds that cross the continent to nest here have all
What Elon Musk has built on the remote mudflats at the southern tip of Texas is astonishing: gantries, fuel storage tanks, an Airstream trailer village, and a silver rocket straight out of Buck Rogers—all fronted by neon letters that spell out "Starbase."
But can SpaceX coexist with the original feathered inhabitants on the lower Gulf coast? Environmentalists from Brownsville to Washington D.C. are protesting his ambitious vision to build, test and launch next-generation rockets in this fragile ecosystem.
"It's 24/7. The lights are really bright out here at night. It's just constant sound and presence of people," says Stephanie Bilodeau, a conservation bird biologist with the non-profit Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program. "I wouldn't want to be nesting near any of this if I were a bird."
She comes out with her spotting scope four times a week to look for plovers and red knots. And she says since SpaceX moved in, these migratory shorebirds that cross the continent to nest here have all
but disappeared."It doesn't look like much, these vast mudflats," she says, scanning the expanse of sand, slick with black algae, "but it's insanely important for shorebirds. The best habitat is right here along Highway 4. And the more expansion there is, the less likely they're going to be able to nest in the areas that they want to nest."
Less than 100 yards behind her, a massive heavy-lift crane is preparing the site for the next test launch. When Musk broke ground here in 2014, the fact that he was sandwiched between the Lower Rio Grande Wildlife Refuge and a small colony of sunburned retirees didn't cause alarm.
Now it does.
"It doesn't look like much, these vast mudflats," she says, scanning the expanse of sand, slick with black algae, "but it's insanely important for shorebirds. The best habitat is right here along Highway 4. And the more expansion there is, the less likely they're going to be able to nest in the areas that they want to nest."
Less than 100 yards behind her, a massive heavy-lift crane is preparing the site for the next test launch. When Musk broke ground here in 2014, the fact that he was sandwiched between the Lower Rio Grande National Wildlife Refuge and a small colony of sunburned retirees didn't cause alarm.
Now it does.
His original plans were to test and launch the slimmer Falcon 9 rocket a dozen times a year to loft satellites into orbit. But his plans have expanded—not surprising for the hard-charging Musk, who also owns the electric car company, Tesla. Today, he's using this limited acreage to build and test his Super Heavy-Starship prototype. In April, NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to build a Starship to take astronauts to the moon, though the contract has since been suspended.
But experimental rockets mean things blow up, and that's what happened during a test flight on March 30.
"As you can see from the frozen camera view we lost the clock at T-plus 5 minutes, 49 seconds. Looks like we've had another exciting test of Starship number 11," the launch commentator said, optimistically. (On May 5, another Starship prototype reached a height of 6.2 miles and returned for a safe landing on a concrete pad. Later this summer, SpaceX plans to launch another unmanned Starship into earth orbit for the first time.) The March 30 explosion showered debris for five miles, including onto the wildlife refuge which is classified as critical habitat.
"These rockets, these ships are more massive and create that much more thrust than the rockets that were originally proposed to be launched there," says David Newstead, director of the coastal bird program for the Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program.
But what most chaps locals is that SpaceX has been closing off access to popular Boca Chica Beach much more frequently than the company originally proposed. Earlier this month, Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz threatened legal action against SpaceX for unauthorized road closures and for its private security officers exceeding their authority.
SpaceX activities are overseen by the FAA—which declined comment—and Cameron County in Texas. The top elected official there, County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr., says they both should be more vigilant of the private space company.
"We probably weren't doing what we should have been, so I understand (the public's) concern and we're trying to do a better job going forward," Treviño says. "By the same token, we need them and want them to succeed."
Starbase employs nearly 1,700 people with a payroll of over $80 million. For a historically poor county where the best and brightest often felt they had to leave the Rio Grande Valley, SpaceX has been a godsend. Musk—believed to be the world's richest person—has been generous when the moment called for it. Within minutes of the Starship 11 explosion—with rocket parts still smoldering on the landscape—he tweeted that he was donating $30 million to Cameron County and the City of Brownsville for schools and downtown revitalization.
Tony Martinez was mayor of Brownsville when Musk chose South Texas for his launch complex over Georgia, Florida, and Puerto Rico
"He (Musk) told me, 'Mr. Mayor, one day you're going to read in the history books that a man left Brownsville and went to Mars,' " Martinez says. "Anytime you have progress, there's nothing that doesn't come with some downside."
Musk is turning Starbase into his company town. He continues to buy up private plots tucked amid the mudflats, he expects the launch compound to grow by several thousand more workers, and he recently asked for his own post office.
In March, SpaceX applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers—which oversees the nation's wetlands—for permission to fill in 17 acres of wetland to expand its launch facility. The major addition would include an expanded solar farm, parking lots, a new launching pad, a desalination plant and a power plant.
The EPA and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service along with national conservation groups such as the American Bird Conservancy are opposed to the expansion plans in their current form, saying it is incompatible with the wildlife refuge.
SpaceX, headquartered in Hawthorne, Calif., did not respond to a request for comment.
Aerospace facilities can coexist with fragile environments. Kennedy Space Center in Florida is inside the boundaries of Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and Canaveral National Seashore, which were created after the launch center's founding in 1962.
Less than 100 yards behind her, a massive heavy-lift crane is preparing the site for the next test launch. When Musk broke ground here in 2014, the fact that he was sandwiched between the Lower Rio Grande Wildlife Refuge and a small colony of sunburned retirees didn't cause alarm.
Now it does.
Less than 100 yards behind her, a massive heavy-lift crane is preparing the site for the next test launch. When Musk broke ground here in 2014, the fact that he was sandwiched between the Lower Rio Grande National Wildlife Refuge and a small colony of sunburned retirees didn't cause alarm.
Now it does.
His original plans were to test and launch the slimmer Falcon 9 rocket a dozen times a year to loft satellites into orbit. But his plans have expanded—not surprising for the hard-charging Musk, who also owns the electric car company, Tesla. Today, he's using this limited acreage to build and test his Super Heavy-Starship prototype. In April, NASA awarded SpaceX a $2.9 billion contract to build a Starship to take astronauts to the moon, though the contract has since been suspended.
But experimental rockets mean things blow up, and that's what happened during a test flight on March 30.
"As you can see from the frozen camera view we lost the clock at T-plus 5 minutes, 49 seconds. Looks like we've had another exciting test of Starship number 11," the launch commentator said, optimistically. (On May 5, another Starship prototype reached a height of 6.2 miles and returned for a safe landing on a concrete pad. Later this summer, SpaceX plans to launch another unmanned Starship into earth orbit for the first time.) The March 30 explosion showered debris for five miles, including onto the wildlife refuge which is classified as critical habitat.
"These rockets, these ships are more massive and create that much more thrust than the rockets that were originally proposed to be launched there," says David Newstead, director of the coastal bird program for the Coastal Bend Bays and Estuaries Program.
SpaceX activities are overseen by the FAA—which declined comment—and Cameron County in Texas. The top elected official there, County Judge Eddie Treviño Jr., says they both should be more vigilant of the private space company.
"We probably weren't doing what we should have been, so I understand (the public's) concern and we're trying to do a better job going forward," Treviño says. "By the same token, we need them and want them to succeed."
Starbase employs nearly 1,700 people with a payroll of over $80 million. For a historically poor county where the best and brightest often felt they had to leave the Rio Grande Valley, SpaceX has been a godsend. Musk—believed to be the world's richest person—has been generous when the moment called for it. Within minutes of the Starship 11 explosion—with rocket parts still smoldering on the landscape—he tweeted that he was donating $30 million to Cameron County and the City of Brownsville for schools and downtown revitalization.
Tony Martinez was mayor of Brownsville when Musk chose South Texas for his launch complex over Georgia, Florida, and Puerto Rico
"He (Musk) told me, 'Mr. Mayor, one day you're going to read in the history books that a man left Brownsville and went to Mars,' " Martinez says. "Anytime you have progress, there's nothing that doesn't come with some downside."
Musk is turning Starbase into his company town. He continues to buy up private plots tucked amid the mudflats, he expects the launch compound to grow by several thousand more workers, and he recently asked for his own post office.
In March, SpaceX applied to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers—which oversees the nation's wetlands—for permission to fill in 17 acres of wetland to expand its launch facility. The major addition would include an expanded solar farm, parking lots, a new launching pad, a desalination plant and a power plant.
The EPA and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service along with national conservation groups such as the American Bird Conservancy are opposed to the expansion plans in their current form, saying it is incompatible with the wildlife refuge.
SpaceX, headquartered in Hawthorne, Calif., did not respond to a request for comment.
Aerospace facilities can coexist with fragile environments. Kennedy Space Center in Florida is inside the boundaries of Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and Canaveral National Seashore, which were created after the launch center's founding in 1962.
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11 comments:
Es Domingo, gente, pero que Sabadito me pase anoche!
Buena comida, buena cogida.
Arriba mi pinche pueblo baraton! Vamos a mover el bote!!!
c/s
Where da white women at? 👩🏼 👩🏼 👩🏼
heh heh
What awful things Space-X hath wrot!
yea, someday we are going to read Elon Musk went to Mars and all other planets in his birthday suit when he dies.
WTF are you all complaining about? You took his money!
DA luis saenz big joke lol now he is trying to do something about this but not before por favor quey. too late
BlackHoleX BHX
BEYOND A REASONABLE Doubt: Chief Felix "El Chapo" Sauceda-Bernal has torn the department in half by surrounding himself with people that have long disciplinary Records..Maybe he feels these are the only Officer's that will follow him and worship
The bullshit coming out of his mouth because under any other Chief they would not be able to function and some would stay terminated.
Everyone knows at the Police Department
That The City Manager El Rata Bernal is Running the Police Department because he knows Felix El Chapo Sauceda Bernal has no balls and is clueless how to lead or run the Department.
The truth hurts...But a true leader would stand up... But as we can all see the only true Leader has been chased off..
So go on and think everything is ok with Brownsville PD..
When the signs are all around;the rehiring of fired Police Officers, promotion of Officers with DWI arrests..
Making an Officer that also had been arrested for DWI his Internal Affairs Investigator!! LMAO!!!
A Bi-polar Patrol Commander who has also been caught Lying on several different occasions.
A LIEUTENANT WHO was terminated and IS BRADY Damaged and who has been a Prick his entire career..Another Lieutenant who is caught doing the wild thing on duty with a civilan employee,the female forced to resign and no disciplinary action taken on the Lieutenant maybe cuz they were SWAT Buddies?
A narcotic Sergeant caught lying again..
These types of people you want around
You? CHIEF Felix El Chapo Sauceda-Bernal close Friend Officer Jose Salinas arrested by The DEA.. .
If the City Of Brownsville doesn't wake the F**k up it won't be long the Police Department gets another Black Eye!
YOU can cover up the smell and make it look pretty but in the end it's still gonna smell like shit!
As for the previous administration running circles around this clown Sauceda is Definitely True...no matter how you try to hide it...
Felix"El Chapo" Sauceda-Bernal with his degree in his hand took a huge pay cut just to get the job...But as it shows you get what you pay for...
Low budget, low quality shit!
Come on, everyone at City Hall will tell you that Chief El Chapo Sauceda tries to mimic the City Manager El Rata Bernal that's why the Department is running like shit!
#worstchiefever..
The economic benefit of Space X to Brownsville is easily apparent everywhere. There are more people living well in Cameron County now than ever before in large part because of Space X. Just look at the massive influx of science related jobs, service, construction, projects, and soon to be added clean energy related jobs with the solar farms etc. that are coming into our area to help feed the Space X expansion.
I too love Boca Chica Beach. However, I cant be selfish. Space X is estimated to be at over 2000 employees in the next year, with a total projection much higher in coming years. As far as i can tell these are good paying jobs. Any community in the world would be tripping over themselves to have the opportunity that Space X has brought to us.
While I suspect the vast majority of residents are pro business and growth. the vocal minority claims some type of moral high ground about saving a access to a small beach for a few people. The worst hypocrisy is that many of the people who use Boca Chica Beach trash the shit outta it every time they go, and now they are trying to protect the wildlife . . . . . NO MAMES!
Bottom line, Space X is an economic dream come true....Don't screw this one up people. let them fly, and bring us along with them as the go.
@2:58 If you love SpaceX so much, why don't you go to fuking Mars when a mission is finally possible! Idiota!
CHIEF FELIX El Chapo Sauceda-Bernal costing the City Of Brownsville millions of Dollars with his incompetent leadership and running off his only competent Commander who had a spotless disciplinary record.
The City Of Brownsville City Manager El Rata Bernal allows Felix El Chapo Sauceda-Bernal to use Bullying and unethical tactics to push his Agenda and makes the Police Department a Hostile working environment if you don't address him properly. Time to get rid of this clown who has made Brownsville Police Department one of the worst Police Department's in the RGV!
#worstchiefever..
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