SpaceX wants to increase its rocket launches in Texas despite push-back from locals and environmental activists who oppose the work’s environmental impacts.
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, SpaceX wants to launch its Starship rockets up to 25 times a year from its “Starbase” in Brownsville, Texas location.
Supporters have praised SpaceX for creating jobs and economic opportunities, but environmental activists have expressed concern about how the company damages the environment.
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In 2022, the FAA made requirements for SpaceX to carry out steps to mitigate its launch pad’s environmental effects, according to The Wall Street Journal, but environmental activists said it was not enough.
More recently, Starship’s fourth flight in June damaged the nests of nine shorebirds, an endangered animal, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s office of law enforcement is investigating the damage on whether or not SpaceX violated environmental laws.
But SpaceX has invested more than $3 billion into Starbase and in the rockets, which it wants to use for satellite deployments, which includes its Starlink satellite-internet business.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk also hopes to one day use the rocket to fulfill his ultimate goal: sending people to Mars.
However, the way forward has been fraught. On Thursday night, an engine on SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket malfunctioned in space during a routine Starlink mission.
About an hour into the flight, the rocket’s second stage failed to reignite and deployed the Starlink satellites into a much lower orbit than planned, where they risk burning up.
Read it at The Wall Street Journal
