2023: #Environmentalists and #NativeAmerican tribe rebuke #SpaceX ahead of historic rocket launch

Opponents of the project say owner #ElonMusk’s space travel aspirations are not worth the risk of a catastrophic explosion.

by Cameron Langford / April 19, 2023

"SpaceX launched a rocket with 33 engines, the most powerful ever built, Thursday morning from its South #Texas port and hailed the test flight as a success, though the rocket and an attached space capsule exploded just four minutes after liftoff.

"The company said in a best-case scenario it would be a 90-minute maiden voyage into space and its first-stage #SuperHeavy rocket would separate from its second-stage #Starship spacecraft about three minutes into the flight, and do a controlled descent into the Gulf of Mexico. And Starship would travel around the globe and land off the coast of Hawaii.

"But with SpaceX livestreaming the event the components failed to separate and the vehicle flipped over before exploding.

"Musk, who also owns Twitter, praised his employees’ work on the project in a Twitter post: 'Congrats @SpaceX team on an exciting test launch of Starship! Learned a lot for next test launch in a few months.'

"Environmental and #CivilRights groups condemned SpaceX’s endeavor in statements Wednesday afternoon, saying they feared an explosion would destroy #EndangeredSpecies’ habitat in a nearby wildlife refuge and that rocket shrapnel could injure area residents.

"But there were no immediate reports of environmental damage or injuries Thursday morning after the explosion.

"Since Elon Musk founded SpaceX in 2002, it has become the world’s premier commercial space business, launching its Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets more than 220 times, making history as the first private firm to send astronauts to the International Space Station and delivering cargo to the International Space Station more than 20 times with its Dragon spacecraft.

Aborted launches and explosions are commonplace for the company as it refines its technology, including a 2019 test flight from its '#Spaceport' in #BocaChica — an unincorporated and sparsely populated village in Cameron County outside #BrownsvilleTX — that started a 100-acre brush fire in the Lower #RioGrandeValley #NationalWildlifeRefuge."

Read more:
https://www.courthousenews.com/environmentalists-and-native-american-tribe-rebuke-spacex-ahead-of-historic-rocket-launch/

#ElonSucks #EnvironmentalRacism #RioGrandeDelta #SacredSites #WildlifeRefuge #ProtectTheSacred #Colonialism #CorporateColonialism
#OccupySpaceX #TwoHeartedPeople #USPol #NativeAmericans #CarrizoComecrudo #AncestralLand #ProtectTheSacred #Pollution #ExplodingRockets

Another reason that #ElonSucks! [Spoiler alert -- #Starbase city is expanding!]

From 2022: Defending #NativeAmerican #SacredSites From #ElonMusk and #SpaceX

By Frank Hopper
Dec 21, 2022

"The #CarrizoComecrudo Tribe of Texas is suing to protect the tribe’s #AncestralLand.

"From an observation deck near the top of his South Texas rocket launch tower, Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and self-proclaimed proponent of free speech, looks northward to South Padre Island, home to many ancient village sites of the Carrizo Comecrudo Tribe of Texas.

"In a video published last May to the YouTube channel Everyday Astronaut, Musk is seen looking over the tower’s railing and down at a 'farm' of huge rocket fuel storage tanks filled with liquid oxygen and methane gas. These will service weekly launches of SpaceX’s massive #SuperHeavy and #Starship orbital launch vehicles in 2023.

"Musk surveys the land from the gleaming metal launch tower, looking down on an #ecosystem filled with #EndangeredSpecies, such as #Ocelots and Kemp’s #RidleySeaTurtles. To the east, he sees the waves of the Gulf of Mexico crashing on #BocaChicaBeach, the site of the Carrizo Comecrudo creation story. To the northwest just a few miles away is #GarciaPasture, an #ArchaeologicalSite containing the remains of a #PreColumbian village nearly a thousand years old.

"Musk wears a black T-shirt with 'Occupy Mars' emblazoned across the front, as if his #corporate conquest and #colonization of space were some sort of righteous protest. As he stands atop his multibillion-dollar mountain of #ToxicMachinery, he cannot see the Indigenous people below who have come to offer tobacco to their ancestors.

"Musk doesn’t see them because, according to the Carrizo Comecrudo, he is blind to the concerns of the #IndigenousPeople who fought and died for the land he now occupies."

Read more:
https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2022/12/21/sacred-site-spacex

#ProtectTheSacred #ElonMusk #Colonialism #CorporateColonialism #OccupySpaceX #TwoHeartedPeople

Atzo, #B19 #SuperHeavy-ak bere lehen pizte estatikoa burutu zuen.

BE-4 motorren multzoa prest dago hirugarren #NewGlenn suzirian instalatzeko.

ESAren #Hera zundak duela gutxi ibilbide zuzenketa bat burutu zuen #Dimorphos asteroide bikoitzera iristeko prestatzeko.

#Espazioa

Starship-aren hurrengo hegaldiko #SuperHeavy #B19 propultsatzaileak, behar bezala pasatu du betetze-proba kriogenikoa.

#Artemisa2-ko eskifaia, berrogeialditik atera da.

#Espazioa

#ProPublica:
"
FAA Warns Airlines About Safety Risks From Rocket Launches, Urges “Extreme Caution”
"
"The agency’s official safety alert comes as SpaceX looks to ramp up Starship tests. A recent ProPublica investigation found that explosions during previous Starship launches disrupted air traffic and forced pilots to scramble for safety."

https://www.propublica.org/article/faa-safety-warning-spacex-starship-explosions-airlines

2.2.2026

#airspace #debris #DRA #FAA #PublicSafety #Raumfahrt #SAFO #SpaceFlight #SpaceX #Starship #SuperHeavy #Verkehrsfliegerei