Watch SpaceX Make Some Noise In Boca Chica (Update – Its Quiet)
Watch the live Starship cam to see if there are any @SpaceX tests today at Boca Chica https://t.co/IqgEXrTRnZ
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) March 21, 2019
Watching the live webcam focused on the @SpaceX test site in Boca Chica – from a few miles away – is sorta like looking into Area 51 from outside the base – with one exception: there actually is a "Starship" sitting there – and it is about to do something. https://t.co/IqgEXrTRnZ
— NASA Watch (@NASAWatch) March 21, 2019
Looks like they were not able to finish all the tests today and will continue them tomorrowaccording to this news article.
https://www.brownsvillehera…
Highway 4 leading to Boca Chica Beach to be closed Friday for SpaceX testing
Posted: Thursday, March 21, 2019 7:18 pm
By MARK REAGAN
Staff Writer
Thank you.
I’ve been looking for details on this.
If the road to my beach were closed I’d be pissed and soon. I wonder how the Camerern county folks feel about it (both of them)?
Some people will dislike the beach closings. Others will be happy to see “high tech” jobs being created which means more money spent in the area. Good for the local economy.
There are only a small number of home owners in Boca Chica, about 20 or so. I expect at some point SpaceX will need to buy them out at a above market price. In terms of the beach closing, that is another question that time will solve, but the unstated problem is how large a safety zone will be need for launches of the Starship/Super Heavy. I expect that if they stay at Boca Chica they will need to move offshore. The good thing is that NOAA charts show it is shallow water for quite a distance offshore.
That is a disadvantage for a purely private or commercial launch complex. It can be highly unpopular, but the government can use eminent domain (or threaten to do so to get a fair price.) If SpaceX wants to clear space around the launch site, they have to pay whatever the owners ask. I’m fairly sure most people, when hearing the words, “Elon Musk wants to buy something from you,” will think they can double the price and he’ll still be able to afford it.
In theory eminent domain could still be applied. In 2005 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a town in Connecticut that condemned several houses to make way for an urban renewal development project, even though it would be a commercial company that would be located on the site of the razed homes. The court’s position was that if it benefited the community economically then it would satisfy the “public use” clause of eminent domain.
However I tend to doubt that the Boca Chica government officials, likely comprised of affected residents, would choose to condemn their own homes and would more likely just try and get a payout from SpaceX. Also I would think SpaceX would want to avoid the negative publicity. Maybe they should just go ahead and pay them twice the value of their homes and get some positive publicity from it.
In Texas they could just create a special district spaceport and give the district eminent domain authority.
That’s more or less what I meant. For what you describe, the action is technically by a government agency, not SpaceX. And if that agency (or an appropriate state or federal agency) don’t want to, SpaceX can’t do anything about it. That’s very different from the situation for a government agency acting on its own.
If, for example, the Air Force decides they need a new rail line going into Vandenberg, they can just take the required land and pay what they consider a fair price. (Well, what a court considers a fair price, since that’s where the matter would end up…)
Never in my wildest weirdest dreams growing up as a child of the Space Age wopuld I have ever picked metro Brownsville , Texas as being on the leading edge of space exploration and home to a Star Base…
Looks like the Starhopper is going to take flight next week…
https://www.brownsvillehera…
FAA restricts flight around Boca Chica for rocket launch and recovery
Posted: Friday, March 22, 2019 3:08 pm
By Mark Reagan | Staff Writer
– now looking at a Monday-Wednesday March 25-27 test window