Massive, exploded SpaceX rocket devastated a town and a wildlife reserve -- and locals are furious

[marmar]

....(snip)....

But the community living near the launch site has been dealing with fallout from the launch, in both senses of the word. The explosion essentially obliterated the launch pad, carving a massive crater and sending chunks of concrete, sheets of stainless steel and other debris flying into the ocean on Boca Chica Beach. A Dodge Caravan was smashed with wreckage, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported was scattered over 385 acres, causing a fire that burned 3.5 acres on Boca Chica State Park land.

Clouds of ash and particulates rained down on residents of Port Isabel, about six miles away, settling onto homes, cars, and streets, breaking several windows. It's not clear if the particulate matter is dangerous to breathe or touch, or if it will pollute the soil. An FAA environmental assessment of the spacecraft notes that some stages of the rocket used kerosene as fuel, which is toxic to breathe; the assessment also notes over 100 gallons of hydraulic fluid in the rocket, which is often hazardous.

....(snip)....

One Port Isabel resident, Sharon Almaguer, told the New York Times the situation was "terrifying" and described locals as "being sacrificed."

"He just wanted to get this thing up in the air," Almaguer said of Musk. "Everybody else sort of be damned."

....(snip)....

"A billionaire is closing our beach to use the land to test his experimental technology putting the lives of locals at risk while destroying acres of a wildlife reserve," Emma Guevara, the Sierra Club's Brownsville Organizer, said in a statement. "Who will be held accountable for the destruction this company consistently causes when the government continues to ignore community members' very real and very serious concerns?" .............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2023/04/28/massive-exploded-spacex-rocket-devastated-a-town-and-a-wildlife-reserve-and-locals-are-furious/

[Rstrstx]

8. That was Tesla, the SpaceX site was chosen a decade ago

It’s less than a mile from the Rio Grande, I wonder if he chose that site with Plan B being to set up the rocket launch pad on the other side of the river in case the FAA started giving him too much trouble.

[ruet]

2. ...

[Lovie777]

3. And Abbott don't care along with Musk..............

[sanatanadharma]

4. It was not the destruction of the rocket that obliterated the launch pad.

It was not the destruction of the rocket that obliterated the launch pad. It was the liftoff itself and the force of all the engines upon the inadequately designed launch pad.
Musk felt he knew better than his engineers and half a century and more of experience. Musk, so to speak, took the wheels off the cart to prove he could improve it

"The explosion essentially obliterated the launch pad, carving a massive crater and sending chunks of concrete, sheets of stainless steel and other debris flying into the ocean on Boca Chica Beach."

[Permanut]

28. Sounds like a very stable genius

[NullTuples]

30. "Move fast, break things!" - Elon Musk

[SonofDonald]

33. I've worked at All the Boeing and U.S. military sites along the puget sound

Doing construction and my specialty work on environmental remediation issues since before 1997

These people didn’t and don’t mess around when it comes to pouring concrete, in a typical Boeing plant the concrete floors under the CNC machines is around 3 feet thick and has been curing since the Second World War, The US military is the same

They just don’t mess around when it comes to doing it the right way the first time

So it’s what you’re saying, mollusk was trying to save money while getting well paid to do it the right way

Skim more off the top you deplorable P.O.S.

I think the failure needs to be investigated immediately and let the chips fall where they will

From what I’ve read I see nothing good about mollusks stewardship in getting us back into space

Too much ego, not enough critical thinking

🧐

[bringthePaine]

5. this is the refuKKKchicken vision AT ITS BEST😱

[ShazzieB]

6. Will there be massive personal injury lawsuits from this?

I certainly hope so.

[BigMin28]

9. It would have to be at the federal level.

Abbott while Attorney General and a majority of dumbass voters in Texas brought us tort reform. You can sue, but there are limits on awards. Meanwhile, Abbott is pulling in thousands a month from his lawsuit. Tax free.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

10. what we know now...

Those with all the money can force court delays and basically prove "justice delayed is justice denied".

[inthewind21]

34. What we know NOW?

Surely you jest. This is NOT a new thing. Not by a mile.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

37. until now NASA, on behalf of taxpayers, were risking catastrophe.

Now, Musk runs the show. He and ego driven bastards like him have stepped into a new area. The Space Race no longer feels like the patriotic exploration of the unknown. Just vanity projects for the uber greedy.

[C Moon]

11. Here's some video footage

https://gizmodo.com/spacex-starship-launch-pad-damage-video-1850357836

[Rhiannon12866]

15. Good Grief!

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

12. rumor is that he pushed to launch before it was ready to use 04-20 as launch date

[RobinA]

29. Gee, That's Never

been a problem in past past.

[cilla4progress]

13. I wondered where it ended up!

Motherfucker.

Everyone just said the Gulf of Mexico like it's no big deal..Motherfuckers there is LIFE down there! Right to life!

[Takket]

14. i don't understand this line...

" The explosion essentially obliterated the launch pad, carving a massive crater and sending chunks of concrete, sheets of stainless steel and other debris flying into the ocean on Boca Chica Beach."

the rocket didn't explode on the launch pad. Was this just the thrust from the liftoff that caused this?

[WestMichRad]

17. In a word, yes.

Musk reportedly overruled engineers and had them take shortcuts, so the launch pad design was inadequate to handle the heat and thrust at launch.

Done deliberately (by Musk).
Deserving of a lawsuit, at very least to prohibit that from happening again.

[moniss]

19. You are correct

and whoever wrote that line in the article has no idea of what they're talking about.

[moniss]

16. It may well be that he keeps

cutting corners to speed up launches/report lower costs as one way to convince NASA/DOD to keep giving him contracts for work. "Self Crashing" Musk has also just been announced as the company to build the lunar lander. I mean what could possibly go wrong since they have such a stellar record for safety and responsibility? Right?

[Farmer-Rick]

18. Corporations doing what corporations do best

Destroying the world and citizen's lives for fun and profit.

[Hortensis]

27. Uhuh. And when PEOPLE live under different economic systems?

How does that work out? You put WAY, WAY, WAY too much blame on things, like corporations. How do Musk, tRump, DeSantis, and the tens of millions who currently admire them and will vote for almost anything to spite liberals, fit into the picture of a "democratic" socialist fix to our problems?

If ONLY the same kind of hard-core conservatives who created global warming got control of our central socialist committees 60 years ago? They would have prevented global warning, because, you know -- socialism?

Yeah, right. It's the people. There is no quick, easy, magic fix for us.

When enough of us are smart enough to elect enough good people to take charge, good things happen.

[inthewind21]

35. EXACTLY!

[slightlv]

20. This makes me so mad...

Why does every billionaire and corporation think they can use and abuse the Gulf of Mexico? I fell in love with the Gulf decades ago when it was so pristine. I wanted, then, to retire in Galveston. Fell in love with the city and the Gulf. Then the oil companies took over, the refineries, the chemical companies moved in, the air stagnated and became hard to breathe. The oil balls washed up on shore. I remember going down with friends and washing oil from the critters with dawn dishwashing liquid. Then the worst slap in the face that we could experience. I was up here in Kansas at that. Cried myself to sleep at that. I watched the movie when it came out. Shouldn't have done that. My blood pressure must have shot up 20 points and I yelled so loud I think they heard me 2 blocks away. I detest what they're doing to Texas. I hate what they've done to the Gulf. I hate what has happened to the animals in the refuges and the marine animals. And I hate what they're doing to the people who can't get away from the chemicals. It's a sin and it should be a crime.

I loved the years I lived in Texas, but that was decades ago, when Democrats held the reins. It actually was such a thing, you know. Henry Cisneros was our Mayor in San Antonio at that time. We had a democratic Governor. And the state did WELL. People were happy! Even the damned oil people. But then, I guess they wanted more, more, more. There's never enough for them. The rest of us be damned.

I always called Kansas home of birth and Texas home of heart. Well, I'm back in Kansas and it's going to crap, too. Damn... I hate Republicans. I wish them all to Hell in this lifetime. If they just picked on each other, it'd be one thing. I just wish they'd stop subjecting the rest of us to their sadism.

[inthewind21]

36. Why you ask

Because the people allow them. That's why.

[dchill]

21. I ALREADY thought Elon Musk was a monster.

Who the fuck needs more evidence?

[RussBLib]

22. a bit of hyperbole about the "town"

...but there is no doubt he's ripping up the wildlife preserve.

Port Isabel did have some broken windows from the shockwave but have not heard exactly how many. As bad as my house was shaking, I'm lucky to not have any broken windows. Just wonder if something inside my walls went splat during that aural assault.

[Warpy]

24. Feeling a financial pinch from the Twitter debacle

it seems like he's rushing his engineers and cutting corners.

Time for him to be hit with cleanup bills and a big fine so he doesn't do it again.

[Maraya1969]

25. How the hell does he get to create such destruction on our earth? I can't burn garbage on

my land and I can't throw garbage up into the air so why the hell is he allowed to do it?

I hope people from all over sue the mother f***er

[Hortensis]

26. Link to NYT article with wow! video of explosion

SpaceX’s Starship Kicked Up a Dust Cloud, Leaving Texans With a Mess

Residents of Port Isabel said that their city was covered in grime following SpaceX’s rocket launch on Thursday. The city said there was no “immediate concern for people’s health.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/21/us/spacex-rocket-dust-texas.html?unlocked_article_code=AvZIB9VjLMnc4_FKMuSikPvozvhDzq7kAAxIUVMan5on0Y6086EYe3QYbBrCBkscUwOJNaJo8cADmuqgJDFwx7FspTt3-n30LnOOBkKMXWHLcAJgcAqOrCjDQOSIn5oEwGLWEXBA4oS5JKfpHWwYPaNkiKv1sNCPzPgOOHm6_kyYv8Nl1G6QUiLL9ihQZSR9B-n_s9Kx1cTdEDUIDOHf4akk9Xka8DfY5MqsdQYpvdsWDEWwWnR4pR1K8Ju1POM9BgRSIT9wYDYSr_ytuPdDzbBRPz6XHkwazRBGMEaWutmkTLG71AN4saTAGJFYY8tMKaxIizyJa9CD9AJ_PCs&giftCopy=2_Explore&smid=url-share

[efhmc]

31. How much tax payer's money went into that project?

[mahina]

32. It's in Texas if anybody else didn't know as I did not