Elon Musk’s casual, even celebratory attitude toward the spectacular explosions that destroyed earlier tests of his Starship launch system may have come back to bite him. NASA says it won’t allow launches of the massive rocket from SpaceX’s pad at Cape Canaveral because it could endanger launches to the International Space Station. The pad in question is next to Pad 39A, which is the only facility approved to launch crewed missions by SpaceX to the ISS. SpaceX has been working frenetically on the Cape facility as a backup to its Boca Chica, Texas, headquarters because permit delays at the Texas site have stalled the program. But NASA is having none of it. ”We all recognize that if you had an early failure like we did on one of the early SpaceX flights, it would be pretty devastating to 39A," Kathy Lueders, NASA's space operations chief, told Reuters. SpaceX has offered to make Pad 39A more explosion proof but so far NASA isn’t budging.
So everything is moving along well. Then Mr Musk expressed his concerns about the current administration and the party it represents, and now there “problems”. The EPA and NASA, suddenly realize that there risks. Hum…. no politics involved here……
…And another conspiracy theorist left over from January 6 is heard from.
So Chuck, those three mini-nuke-sized blasts at Boca Chica never happened and the Texas photo Russ provided is actually a refinery fire?
And pad 39A is NOT a stone’s throw ( or within a crater radius) from where SpaceX is modding one to launch Starship from rather than comply with enviro constraints and ameliorate neighbor concerns at BC?
Facts and history are such a nuisance sometimes …but we kinda rely on them to anticipate future aviation safety hazards.
OK, so they ran out of excuses to prevent the Boca Chica site from operating but that leaves Spacex with two options for launch sites. We can’t have that, I mean how do you squeeze this guy everywhere? No, let’s shut down his other option now to keep control of him.
So, I guess he’ll have to activate the oil platform option. Harder to regulate that into submission. I mean, he could put it anywhere. So, we better start thinking of ways to prevent that too.
That explains why the SLS/Artemis spends all of its time crawling back and forth to the launchpad. Heavens no, don’t let Starship launch here, they might actually fly a rocket instead of displaying the world’s most expensive paperweight.
Let me see now, Musk had intentions of purchasing Twitter and the current administration set up a “Disinformation Czar” to determine what the truth is. The Twitter deal hit some obstacles and suddenly the the Disinformation Czar isn’t needed.
Spacex made strides in space launches but soon after Musk made comments questioning the stumbling, rambling president’s competency, NASA has decided the Spacex launches are too risky. Hey, Mr. Musk, maybe you should follow the example of many industries and move operations out of the country.
What next? Maybe the Tesla’s will suddenly become unsafe for operations on public roadways. I wonder if the NTSB will be the next weapon fired at the MUSK-e-teer.
I’m sure Musk’s cavalier attitude toward “RUDs” has nothing at all to do with his apparent disregard to safety.
I respect Tesla and SpaceX for accomplishing what everyone else said was impossible to do, and it’s great that he’s used his money to start those companies, but as a business leader he’s too much of a wild card.
Like NASA has any room to talk about rockets blowing up. Musk doesn’t need NASA and this will come back to be detrimental to the Cape. Hopefully Boca Chica will be functional soon.
What does NASA have against successful African-Americans? Or is this the childish reaction of the Biden administration to Musk’s endorsement of Ron DeSantis as the next Real President? Musk ought to simply buy an island closer to the equator and run his own launch facility. He’d corner the market on commercial space launches and thumb his nose at bureaucrats who get in the way of industry.
Kennedy Space Center is NOT ON Cape Canaveral but is across the Banana River to the West.
Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is a Space Force installation and NASA has no control over it except for a few specific facilities. The Eastern Range is run by the Space Force and NASA cannot deny access by anyone to the range.
Originally, Launch Complexes 39C and 39D were planned to the NW of LC39A and 39B but where never built. They two new complexes probably will not ever be built, considering the severe environmental restrictions.
On Cape Canaveral, SLC-37, built for Saturn I and later used for Delta IV will be available once the Delta IV program ends, as it will because it is not cost competitive with Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy. Aside from that, SLC-34 is relatively close to SLC-37, is not in use, and is available as well.
The government was By the People, for the People, and of the People, NOW it by the LIbtards, for the Libtards, and of the Libtards. There is an active civil war in this country right now without a single shot being fired. The left has weaponized the government for their agenda and NASA is a part of that. I home Musk is super successful with his space program.
Hi Gary,
“cavalier attitude”
Might seem that way. More likely a great sense of humor about the learning curve of rocketry.
“too much of a wild card.”
Perhaps just the right amount of wild card?
NASA is risk adverse and rightfully so . . . it’s taxpayer’s money. Richest man in the world is willing to move forward more quickly to achieve the end goal. Omelets / broken eggs.
Given free reign, Musk will likely be the only one to pull off a Mars mission. The failures don’t bother me one bit. The Earth is populated with 8,000,000,000 people and only one of them is trying. So what if he fails a few times?
Oh, and by the way, those starship explosions were not “mini nukes”, there was very little fuel and nearby structures were not damaged. The rocket explosions are USUALLY far less violent than equivalent amount of explosives, as fuel and oxidizer are not pre-mixed, and the initial fireball in the area where they do mix quite efficiently blows the remainders of both apart, preventing further mixing and more massive explosion.
Please, if you feel the need to make a comment, try to keep politics and conspiracy theories out of it.
And refrain from saying something like “libtards”, because that adds nothing to the discussion.
And it might even be worth consider that you might not know the whole story.
I read the article, and thought I’d read the comments to get a broader perspective. All I’ve been able to take away from the comments is that it’s a government conspiracy by the conniving libtards and the gov’t is no longer by the people and the human race is dumbed-down to the extent of being doomed.