Email to the FAA
Oct. 9th, 2021 07:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
libertarianhawkI don't bother lobbying the government much--my preferences are so far outside their list of options I'd expect my comments to be roundfiled. But sometimes I have to put my two cents in.
The FAA is reviewing whether to allow SpaceX to launch the Starship/Superheavy combo to orbit from Boca Chica, TX. One part of that is an environmental impact assessment. Those things are frequently used to stop or delay development. If the resisters can stake out a position that harms to the environment are unacceptable, then nothing can be built, unless it's sneaking in under some grandfather clause.
There's people trying that with SpaceX now. So I sent in a letter to be on the other side of the scale:
The USA needs the capability to launch heavy loads into space. Not just to support NASA planned Lunar and Deep Space missions, but for growth in commercial space and new military needs.
No matter where we put the launch site for those capabilities, there will be some environmental impact. Boca Chica may not be an ideal place for a launch facility, but in the real world we need to consider if it is acceptable, compared to the other places we may have a launch site. For low inclination launches, there are no good alternatives on US soil. Florida is heavily developed along its coast. Other East Coast states are too far North for easy access to low inclinations. Gulf Coast states other than Texas will have unacceptable potential impact zones.
Given that the USA will have to put new launch facilities on the Texas coast, Boca Chica is the least bad option. While there are impacts to both the people and ecology, they are milder impacts than alternate sites would suffer.
Please approve the launch of rockets from Boca Chica in the Program Environmental Assessment.
Thank you,
Karl K. Gallagher
Saginaw, TX
The FAA is reviewing whether to allow SpaceX to launch the Starship/Superheavy combo to orbit from Boca Chica, TX. One part of that is an environmental impact assessment. Those things are frequently used to stop or delay development. If the resisters can stake out a position that harms to the environment are unacceptable, then nothing can be built, unless it's sneaking in under some grandfather clause.
There's people trying that with SpaceX now. So I sent in a letter to be on the other side of the scale:
The USA needs the capability to launch heavy loads into space. Not just to support NASA planned Lunar and Deep Space missions, but for growth in commercial space and new military needs.
No matter where we put the launch site for those capabilities, there will be some environmental impact. Boca Chica may not be an ideal place for a launch facility, but in the real world we need to consider if it is acceptable, compared to the other places we may have a launch site. For low inclination launches, there are no good alternatives on US soil. Florida is heavily developed along its coast. Other East Coast states are too far North for easy access to low inclinations. Gulf Coast states other than Texas will have unacceptable potential impact zones.
Given that the USA will have to put new launch facilities on the Texas coast, Boca Chica is the least bad option. While there are impacts to both the people and ecology, they are milder impacts than alternate sites would suffer.
Please approve the launch of rockets from Boca Chica in the Program Environmental Assessment.
Thank you,
Karl K. Gallagher
Saginaw, TX
no subject
Date: 2021-10-10 08:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-10-11 04:08 am (UTC)