What position did you hold during the your 30 years of employment there ?
NASA, AF, GSA …?
Thanks.
Mr. DOdGEy once admonished his people to fix problems properly instead of patching, his first rockets failed then improved, now he’s back to crash-patch-crash.
Fails the Capability Maturity Model test for aviation software which requires consistency to get to top levels.
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I am still trying to understand how Starbase is “close to homes”. I have made several visits and it’s about remote as you can get. Is this article in any way driven by your politics? Serious question. I can find thousands of places in the US that are doing harm to the environment.
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Fifteen and 1/2 years (of my 21) – to the day – in uniform supporting flight test instrumentation (data collection) on all the test programs active during that time + more. The last four were as Sr. military of that group. Thereafter, 12 years on a program that was made famous over the weekend. My final seven years were spent supporting Navy flight test in Florida. NOW, I turn beer into urine 12 oz. at a time (millions of AvWeb readers will remember THAT one 
) as a snowbird fighting lefties and tree huggers wherever I can find them after I lick Elon’s boots.
Well, I understand that Trump’s change simply removes the crude blanket prohibition but does NOT change the noise.
OTOH, Boom Supersonic’s testing with XB-1 showed conditions in which the ‘boom’ noise is negligible at ground level.
With the Concorde there was a noise concern around airports as it used afterburner to climb quickly, Boom Supersonic’s planned airliner will not use afterburner and has I understand a lot of thrust so perhaps will throttle back initially then increase power for climb to altitude where it will start supersonic cruise.
Larry S you ain’t no Snowbird unless you happen to be living in them thar N.E. Union states. Our sasquatches are doing well up here with remedial communication classes courtesy of the taxpayers. Please realize that Raf is right regardless of your concerns for the nesting sea turtles. As a possible future leader of the “Free” world consider that E.M. can trim government budgets and get us back to where we all want to be–a house in the “burbs” with a rusty Chev in the carport, a new dishwasher (the plug in kind) and cable T.V. with a thousand channels showing rewinds of “I luv Lucy”. Daybreeze? What daybreeze? Check your local subway or bus station. Take a look at vacation hotspots like “love canal” and the Cuyahoga river. I think Raf’s onto something here and this was a good editorial posting.
Thanks for answering my question, I was wondering if you were an engineer. 
I knew someone who was bushing engineers, college graduates and hated everyone except himself.
I don’t know him any more…if you know what I mean.
Enjoy life to the fullest, it’s too short to hate anyone or anything we are all different because we just are. By the way, I’m a notorious tree lover, plant flower, and animal lover including people like you who are proud to “lick” dirty boots, but I will never spit or lick anyone’s boots.
“12 oz at a time” creates lots of methane gas, quit it and grow a garden like I do, you’ll be happy you did.
Cheers !!!
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Chemical imbalance does that to a person, money is nothing it can’t buy happiness.
The billionaires are seeking power. Their objective is simple but cruel, they want others to suffer so they can get a kick out of it.
Cruelty makes them feel powerful…but they ain’t. 
Keith, you’re only partially right about the QUESST. The reason the X-59 program SO peeps me off is because the testing was already done AT GOV’T EXPENSE! Google SSBD … SuperSonic Boom Demonstrator. I was a part of SSBD team in Florida in the early 2000’s over 20 years ago.
In the early 2000’s, a consortium of different Agencies – DARPA, NASA, Navy, and others – pooled money to highly modify a used up USMC F-5E Aggressor airplane to see if massive sculpting of the airframe might reduce the noise signature using theories already in place at the time. NASA Dryden was one of those Agencies. After we built the airframe in FL, it was flown to Edwards AFB where it was tested BY NASA with an unmodified F-5E under various conditions at nearly the same time. The theories WERE proved out … the noise signatures were substantially reduced. That airplane still exists and is at the Valiant Air Museum in Titusville, FL
See:
The QUESST airplane IS NOT proving any additional sculpting; it is built to fly over civilian populations to see if they object to the “thump” of a reduced boom … and NOTHING MORE. No passenger is going to want to ride in an airplane that looks like the X-59! Someone “stole” ~$650M (likely more, now?) to see if people can tolerate that thump, that’s all. As my previous link showed, even Forbes is questioning ROI on the Program … it’s not just me.
Every supersonic airplane / engine / conditions combo will be different. Boom’s XB-1, for example, is a scale model so there’s no guarantee that the full sized airplane will be quiet, or not.
WHO – in their right mind – would spend $650M to see if a neighbor objected to their loud car? See my consternation … we’ve already proven the noise reduction theories and now individual airframes will have to prove or disprove their individual abilities to reduce the noise. And IF their designs don’t reduce the noise, the President’s decree makes it ‘too bad’ if you don’t like it. I’m not saying that’s OK; just that it no longer matters either way. I admit that’s a late change in the situation.
The X-59 QUESST is nothing more than a NASA Armstrong boondoggle where the Program Managers somehow got a big pile of money for Lockheed Palmdale and they’re all having a great party in the desert. AND … one of the NASA test pilots is Jim “Clue” Less … a fitting call sign for one of the participants in the boondoggle. As I already said, the combo of X-57 and X-59 at NASA Armstrong is wasting 3/4 of a BILLION dollars. I challenged the project pilot at Airventure a few years ago; you shoulda seen him tap dancing. I SO wanted so sic the DOGE boys on those programs !! NASA Armstrong ought to be ashamed of itself; THAT is why I “ate” the Program Manager of the X-57 Maxwell at Airventure a couple of years ago after they finally cancelled it. I’m sure they laughed at me afterward? Both Programs are an insult to those of us ‘in the know.’
BTW, Keith. Stare at the longitudinal stripes on the picture of the SSBD airplane. They’re not there just for decoration. The RED stripe is the noise signature of the unmodified sister airplane and the blue stripe is the reduced noise signature of the SSBD sculpted airplane.
The X-59 WILL reduce the noise signature further … how could it not? It’s SO pointy that the pilot cannot even see out of it; it has to be flown with video cameras. It has zero relevance to what Boom, et al, may ultimately produce, try to certify and sell. THAT is why Boom built the XB-1 and tested it at Mojave … where I had a hangar for 17 years.
Getting back to the subject du jour, IMHO, TurboDoodle wins. His point IS pertinent here. Ya’ll go back and read his comment.
This isn’t anti-SpaceX or political . It’s about safety.
June 18, 2025: Starship #36 exploded on the pad during a static fire, carrying just 10% fuel. Debris landed on both sides of the U.S.–Mexico border. Texas is now installing alert systems. That’s telling.
Now scale it up: nearly 10 million pounds of cryogenic propellant.
If it blows at the pad or shortly after liftoff, it’s not going to be a test glitch, it’s going to be a major disaster.
Half of Starship test flights have failed—Boca Chica isn’t remote. Brownsville is growing. The Gulf coast is home to people, fisheries, and protected ecosystems. This isn’t a safe place for high-risk tests.
Also, this isn’t anti-SpaceX. Their work—Starlink, Mars, lunar missions—is outstanding. But innovation needs accountability. SpaceX knows this. They bought and later sold offshore rigs (Phobos and Deimos) in 2023, not because the idea was wrong, but because the platforms didn’t fit. FAA documents show an 18-mile offshore buffer was part of their own planning.
So the question is: When, not if.
Offshore launches are expensive. But the cost of an onshore failure is far worse.
Move high-risk launches offshore.
It’s common sense.
Sorry RAF you absolutely have Elon Derangement Syndrome. This comment is the first time I have ever seen you post something that wasn’t negative about Elon and Starship.
Please explain how offshore would be better for the environment when the debris would be underwater and much more difficult to cleanup.
Failure is never a good thing but this is experimental flight testing and NASA went through the exact same thing developing the space program with dozens of explosions on the pad and shortly after liftoff in an environmentally sensitive area.
Yes these failures are spectacular and I’m sure very frightening to people in the area but there are always costs associated with innovation. No one was hurt and hopefully much was learned to make the Starship safer for future flights. The Falcon 9 had its own developmental issues but its now the safest and most reliable launch platform in the world bar none.
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Uh, Crispaileron…
Pennies add up to overload, just like weight added to aircraft.
Tom Warne:
But folks on VI don’t like Mr. DOdGEy.
Many did vote for politicians that would take a competent approach to reducing bureaucracy, but not enough did (not enough women for some reason).
Fine, what is the aerodynamic theory behind X-59’s longer nose which appears flattened?
Boom Supersonic uses synthetic vision to avoid lowering the nose as Concorde did, tested first with a light subsonic airplane with two pilots then on XB-1.
“Starbase is less than three miles from the Mexico–U.S. border and surrounded by sensitive ecosystems, working-class neighborhoods and international waterways”
Responsibility?
Mexican beach resort towns are riskier to both people and to sensitive beach eco-systems.
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You sounded mad from the start, no need for verification…
Speaking of verification, whence your quote?
No, if you were concerned about safety, you would focus on the to 10 causes of early death.
The chances of anyone being hurt/killed by an exploding booster at Boca Chica is almost nil.
Tell that to the first family that suffers a loss due to failure of oversight. Smugness is like billionaires seeking power.. It makes you look bad.