Category Archives: Boca Chica Texas

The Texas Highland Lakes is a chain of six fresh water reservoirs in Central Texas formed by six dams on the lower Colorado River.[1] The Texas Colorado River winds southeast from West Texas to Matagorda Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.

The dams and lakes are (from northwest to southeast, upstream to downstream):

The lower Colorado River basin has a history of major flooding. The Lower Colorado River Authority built the dams to manage floods and generate hydroelectric power in the 1930s and 1940s.

The two largest lakesBuchanan and Travisare the reservoirs that store water supply for the region. The smaller lakesInks, LBJ, Marble Falls and Austinare pass-through lakes that are operated within a certain range.

Coordinates: 303404N 982258W / 30.5678N 98.3827W / 30.5678; -98.3827

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Texas Highland Lakes - Wikipedia

A resident of a South Texas village told NBC News that SpaceX wanted to buy her house for $150,000 but that the company's offer was one-third of the price of similar properties nearby.

SpaceX is building its Starbase city in Boca Chica, where the company has launched its Falcon 9 rockets and Starship prototypes.

Some residents have said SpaceX made offers for their homes that they considered unfair or were too low to buy similar homes elsewhere. The Wall Street Journal reported in May that SpaceX had bought at least 112 parcels of land in the area.

Celia Johnson, a retiree who owns a three-bedroom waterfront ranch in Boca Chica, told NBC News that she held out on SpaceX's offer because it was too low, based on the prices of lower-quality properties in the area.

Johnson said a similar waterfront house near her home would cost about three times as much as SpaceX's offer.

Zillow, a real-estate marketplace, says on its website that the typical value of a home in Boca Chica is about $120,700 and that property prices have increased by about 22.3% over the past year. In South Padre Island, across the bay from Boca Chica, the typical home value is $349,200, according to Zillow.

Listings on Zillow and Trulia indicate that some homes in Brownsville, the nearest town to Boca Chica, are selling for $750,000 and beyond.

Johnson and Maria Pointer, another Boca Chica resident, told NBC News that a real-estate agent representing Elon Musk's company had told them their properties could be seized by the state under eminent domain.

SpaceX didn't immediately reply to Insider's request for comment.

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SpaceX offered $150K for Texas house, owner says it's a lowball offer - Business Insider

DistrictSenatorPartyResidenceFirstelectedNextelectionCounties represented1Bryan HughesRepublicanMineola20162022Bowie, Camp, Cass, Franklin, Gregg, Harrison, Lamar, Marion, Morris, Panola, Red River, Rusk, Smith, Titus, Wood, Upshur2Bob HallRepublicanEdgewood20142022Dallas (part), Delta, Fannin, Hopkins, Hunt, Kaufman, Rains, Rockwall, Van Zandt3Robert NicholsRepublicanJacksonville20062022Anderson, Angelina, Cherokee, Hardin, Henderson, Houston, Jasper, Liberty, Montgomery (part), Nacogdoches, Newton, Orange, Polk, Sabine, San Augustine, San Jacinto, Shelby, Trinity, Tyler4Brandon CreightonRepublicanThe Woodlands20142022Chambers, Galveston (part), Harris (part), Jefferson, Montgomery (part)5Charles SchwertnerRepublicanGeorgetown20122022Brazos, Freestone, Grimes, Leon, Limestone, Madison, Milam, Robertson, Walker, Williamson6Carol AlvaradoDemocraticHouston20182022Harris (part)7Paul BettencourtRepublicanHouston20142022Harris (part)8Angela PaxtonRepublicanPlano20182022Collin (part), Dallas (part)9Kelly HancockRepublicanFort Worth20122022Dallas (part), Tarrant (part)10Beverly PowellDemocraticFort Worth20182022Tarrant (part)11Larry TaylorRepublicanFriendswood20122022Brazoria (part), Galveston (part), Harris (part)12Jane NelsonRepublicanFlower Mound19922022Denton (part), Tarrant (part)13Borris MilesDemocraticHouston20162022Fort Bend (part), Harris (part)14Sarah EckhardtDemocraticAustin20202022Bastrop, Travis (part)15John WhitmireDemocraticHouston19822022Harris (part)16Nathan M. JohnsonDemocraticDallas20182022Dallas (part)17Joan HuffmanRepublicanSouthside Place20082022Brazoria (part), Fort Bend (part), Harris (part)18Lois KolkhorstRepublicanKaty20142022Aransas, Austin, Burleson, Calhoun, Colorado, DeWitt, Fayette, Fort Bend (part), Goliad, Gonzales, Harris (part), Jackson, Lavaca, Lee, Matagorda, Nueces (part), Refugio, Victoria, Waller, Washington, Wharton19Roland GutierrezDemocraticSan Antonio20202022Atascosa (part), Bexar (part), Brewster, Crockett, Dimmit, Edwards, Frio, Kinney, Maverick, Medina, Pecos, Real, Reeves, Terrell, Uvalde, Val Verde, Zavala20Juan HinojosaDemocraticMcAllen20022022Brooks, Hidalgo (part), Jim Wells, Nueces (part)21Judith ZaffiriniDemocraticLaredo19862022Atascosa (part), Bee, Bexar (part), Caldwell, Duval, Guadalupe (part), Hays (part), Jim Hogg, Karnes, La Salle, Live Oak, McMullen, San Patricio, Starr, Travis (part), Webb, Wilson, Zapata22Brian BirdwellRepublicanGranbury20102022Bosque, Ellis, Falls, Frio, Hill, Hood, Johnson, McLennan, Navarro, Somervell, Tarrant (part)23Royce WestDemocraticDallas19922022Dallas (part)24Dawn BuckinghamRepublicanHorseshoe Bay20162022Bandera, Bell, Blanco, Brown, Burnet, Callahan, Comanche, Coryell, Gillespie, Hamilton, Kerr, Lampasas, Llano, Mills, San Saba, Taylor (part), Travis(part)25Donna CampbellRepublicanNew Braunfels20122022Bexar (part), Comal, Guadalupe (part) Hays (part), Kendall, Travis (part)26Jose MenendezDemocraticSan Antonio20152022Bexar (part)27Eddie Lucio Jr.DemocraticBrownsville19902022Cameron, Hidalgo (part), Kenedy, Kleberg, Willacy28Charles PerryRepublicanLubbock20142022Baylor, Borden, Childress, Coke, Coleman, Concho, Cottle, Crane, Crosby, Dawson, Dickens, Eastland, Fisher, Floyd, Foard, Garza, Hale, Hardeman, Haskell, Hockley, Irion, Jones, Kent, Kimble, King, Knox, Lamb, Lubbock, Lynn, Mason, McColluch, Menard, Mitchell, Motley, Nolan, Reagan, Runnels, Sleicher, Scurry, Shackelford, Stephens, Sterling, Stonewall, Sutton, Taylor (part), Terry, Throckmorton, Tom Green, Upton, Ward, Wilbarger29Cesar BlancoDemocraticEl Paso20202022Culberson, El Paso, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, Presidio30Drew SpringerRepublicanVernon20202022Archer, Clay, Collin (part), Cooke, Denton (part), Erath, Grayson, Jack, Montague, Palo Pinto, Parker, Wichita, Wise, Young31Kel SeligerRepublicanAmarillo20042022Andrews, Armstrong, Bailey, Briscoe, Carson, Castro, Cochran, Collingsworth, Dallam, Deaf Smith, Donley, Ector, Gaines, Glasscock, Gray, Hall, Hansford, Hartley, Hemphill, Howard, Hutchinson, Lipscomb, Loving, Martin, Midland, Moore, Ochiltree, Oldham, Parmer, Potter, Randall, Roberts, Sherman, Swisher, Wheeler, Winkler, Yoakum

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Texas Senate - Wikipedia

Elon Musk and SpaceX are dead set on establishing a base on Mars. And on the Moon. But first the famous, eccentric CEO and aerospace company are building a base here on Earth in Boca Chica, Texas. Really. Its called Starbase, and the private aerospace company gives a brief visual overview of the Gateway to Mars in the inspiring video below.

SpaceX recently posted the video showing off Starbase to YouTube, with literally zero context. The aerospace company posted the same video to Twitter as well, simply noting the site will serve as the Gateway to Mars. (Incidentally, the more we say Gateway to Mars, the more we think of Stargate.)

In the video SpaceX shows a time-lapse of inchoate Starship prototypes moving through the production process. Starship, a 160-foot-tall rocket, is the companys hope for much, if not all of its future goals in space. The rocket, along with its Super Heavy booster, measures an astounding 363 feet tall. And, once the fully formed rockets start rolling off the assembly line, each onethats in a crew configurationwill be able to transport 100 people from Earth into orbit. Per flight.

Despite the videos brevity it shows some key production steps and Starship components. At just ten seconds into the video, for example, the rockets Raptor engines are on display. (According to Space.com Super Heavy will have 33 of the super-powerful engines, and Starship itself will have six.) Following the engines the video glimpses Starbases high bay structure; a spartan 265-foot-tall tower that shields Starships and Super Heavy boosters from the elements during assembly.

Speaking of assembly, the video ends with a giant crane placing a Starship prototype on top of a Super Heavy prototype. Its hard to get a sense of scale, even with the relatively tiny cars in the video, but, needless to say, the rocket is huge. As in, as tall as the Saturn V rocket that took astronauts to the Moon. And while the jumbo SpaceX rocket isnt quite ready for showtime yet, orbital flights should be coming soon. Along with a futuristic bar at the top of the high bay that people will get to via catapult. Because going interplanetary doesnt sound extreme enough on its own?

Link:

SpaceX Previews Its Gateway to Mars Texas Launch Site - Nerdist

The recent social media feud between tech billionaire Elon Musk and David Beasley of the UN World Food Programme has drawn attention to an important debate over the aid sector, and why, it seems, no matter how much money is spent, global hunger continues. In fact, the number of undernourished people in the world has risen consistently over the last three years.

Musk is probably not going to sign that $6 billion cheque (though it would be great if he did), but he is not wrong about the aid sector being broken. He, like many others, just doesnt seem to understand why; or perhaps he has a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.

Wealthy elites tend to think its a question of management strategies and transparent accounting that surely the administrators of charities must be wasting money instead of running a lean and brutally efficient private sector industry. So, yes, the global aid sector is broken, but not because of management. It is broken because it has to pander to billionaire donors like Musk, while boardrooms of mostly Western white men make decisions based solely on the preferences of their billionaire donors.

Ive personally seen this play out countless times. The deeply entrenched disparities within the aid sector fall across lines of racial, gender, and power inequality, to the point that when a tenaciously successful charity organisation based in Bangalore, Kampala, Addis Ababa, or Tegucigalpa comes forward to seek grant funding, they find themselves having to shape their programming to fit the expectations of people like Musk.

Approximately 60 percent of the worlds hunger pandemic can be found in just 10 countries. PHOTOS | FILE

For many of the largest institutions and sources of financing, we are answering to the wrong stakeholders, judging by the wrong metrics, and ignoring equity as the centrepiece of aid financing, programming, and execution.

Im not suggesting Musk hand over $6 billion without questions just that his questions could show a greater comprehension of the nuance and complexity of world crises. If he were truly interested in helping, he would reflect on hunger as a health equity issue. For example, why does hunger disproportionately affect women and girls? Why are lower-income countries hit hardest by famine? Why are Black families in the United States two to three times more likely to experience hunger than white families? If we ask the right questions, make a seat at the table for affected communities, and create spaces which foster empowered dialogue, we can get to the true core of the issues.

In 2019, an estimated 650 million people were undernourished worldwide. As a result of the pandemic, that surged to 811 million, or about one in every nine people. Of that total, approximately 60 percent are women and girls. Unequal access to opportunities in education and careers, lower wages, laws that favour men, and cultural traditions are all contributing factors.

Cycles of disadvantage continue beyond the home.

Approximately 60 percent of the worlds hunger pandemic can be found in just 10 countries: Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Nigeria, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.

At its core, hunger is a health equity problem. Solutions wont be found in the form of a cheque for $6 billion. Theyll require structural change and a multilateral approach. Elon Musk knows this. So does the World Food Programme, who didnt say $6 billion would solve world hunger, but rather, that it would help to solve world hunger.

And money would go a long way towards helping.

But if Musk, who is currently living in Boca Chica, Texas, were to find himself at the other end of one of the climate-related events Texas has experienced in recent years: extreme cold leading to an energy grid failure for example, he could get to safety. Hed have the ability to check and track weather on his phone. Hed be able to buy a plane ticket or fly his private jet. Hed be able to relocate permanently if he wanted. There would be a door number two.

There is no door let alone a door number two for people who are living in poverty.

If Musk truly wants to help, he should stop centring himself in conversations about hunger for clickbait. Its not about him.

World hunger and other humanitarian crises need a different generation of funders: funders who create spaces to have honest conversations about the real needs, while also understanding financial involvement doesnt magically equate to expertise; funders who see it as their role to facilitate change rather than enforcing prescriptive solutions; and funders who are deeply committed to equity and recognise it as the baseline of a sustainable world.

All too often in the global aid sector, I have witnessed organisations try to fit into a prescriptive mould that funders have manufactured, without including the very people who are intimately involved in the work. They do this for a variety of reasons, ranging from meeting goals to showing board members there has been progress. But the result is that organisations doing the work wont ask for what they really want, afraid of losing out on funds.

When I was working on funding support for childrens programmes in India circa 2017, for example, the community identified a need for educational opportunities that would provide a roadmap out of abject poverty, at least for some. Instead, one wealthy individual donor thought it a good idea to fund a project to develop agricultural skills and grow healthy foods. The community, living in shanty houses built on heaps of garbage in the slums, was expected to grow gardens in recycled containers as a solution to malnutrition.

It was a ludicrous idea. And yet the implementing organisation accepted funds to prioritise growing vegetable gardens and to use only what was left over for a school under a lone tree. The extent to which this Western donor was out of touch would be laughable if it werent for the heartbreaking fact that the needs of the community were ignored while another billionaire could go on to boast about his charitable giving.

All too often, implementing organisations shapeshift to meet the demands of donors. Then, once awarded funds, they attempt to shave off money here and there to funnel what they can towards the real problem. Theyre robbing Peter to pay Paul. Or theyre engaging in conversations with billionaires like Musk, who make attention-seeking statements about large-sum donations that may never come to fruition or address the real issue. In either case, its the same people who are always on the losing end.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk just gained another billion dollars.

By Vineeta Gupta

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There are a billion reasons why Elon Musk is not going to end world hunger - The Citizen

Elon Musk is angry with the lack of progress SpaceX has made in developing the Raptor engines that power its Starship rocket.

He described a dire situation the day after Thanksgiving in a companywide email, a copy of which was obtained by CNBC.

"The Raptor production crisis is much worse than it seemed a few weeks ago," Musk wrote.

"We face genuine risk of bankruptcy if we cannot achieve a Starship flight rate of at least once every two weeks next year," Musk added later.

Starship is the massive, next-generation rocketSpaceX is developing to launch cargo and people on missions to the moon and Mars. The company is testing prototypes at a facility in southern Texas and has flown multiple short test flights. But to move to orbital launches, the rocket prototypes will need as many as 39 Raptor engines each necessitating a sharp ramp in engine production.

Musk's email to SpaceX employees provides more context to the significance of the departure of former Vice President of Propulsion Will Heltsley earlier this month. Heltsley had been taken off Raptor development before he left, CNBC reported, with Musk noting in his email that the company's leadership has been digging into the program's problems since then and discovering the circumstances "to be far more severe" than Musk previously thought.

SpaceX did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment. Heltsley did not respond to CNBC requests for comment.

The SpaceX founder and CEO's email was first reported by Space Explored, a subset of technology blog 9to5Mac.

A closer look under the base of Super Heavy Booster 4 at the 29 Raptor engines.

SpaceX

Musk wrote in the email that he planned to take the long Thanksgiving holiday off. But, after discovering the Raptor situation, Musk said he would personally work on the engine production line through Friday night and into the weekend.

"We need all hands on deck to recover from what is, quite frankly, a disaster," Musk wrote.

The billionaire founder has repeatedly described production as the most difficult part of creating SpaceX's mammoth rocket. The company has steadily built up its Starship production and testing facility in Boca Chica, Texas, with multiple prototypes in work simultaneously.

The company'snext major step in developing Starship is launching to orbit.

A Starship prototype test fires its six Raptor rocket engines on November 12, 2021 in Boca Chica, Texas.

SpaceX

Musk on Nov. 17 said SpaceX will "hopefully launch" the first orbital Starship flight in January or February, pending regulatory approval by the FAA as well as technical readiness.

SpaceX wants Starship to be fully reusable, with both the rocket and its booster capable of landing after a launch and to be recovered for future flights. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rockets are partially reusable. The company can regularly land and relaunch the boosters but not the upper portion, or stage, of the rocket.

Musk said earlier this month that he wasn't sure if Starship would successfully reach orbit on the first try, but emphasized that he is "confident" that the rocket will get to space in 2022. He also noted at the time that Starship development "is at least 90% internally funded thus far," with the company not assuming "any international collaboration" or external funding.

SpaceX has raised billions in funding over the past several years, both to for Starship and its satellite internet project Starlink, withthe company's valuation recently hitting $100 billion.

But, while SpaceX has launched about 1,700 Starlink satellites to orbit so far, Musk said the first version of the satellite "is financially weak." The company has been steadily growing Starlink's user base, with about 140,000 users paying for service at $99 a month.

Earlier this year SpaceX outlined improvements for the second version of the satellite, with Musk saying in his email that "V2 is strong" but can only be launched effectively by its Starship rockets.

To date SpaceX has launched Starlink satellites with its Falcon 9 rockets, but Musk outlined that those rockets do not have the mass or volume needed to effectively deploy the second-generation satellites. That means the success of the Raptor engine program is also critical to the long-term financial stability of SpaceX's Starlink service, which Musk has talked about spinning off in an IPO.

Notably, SpaceX is currently ramping up production of its Starlink antennas "to several million units per year," Musk said in the email, but those will be "useless otherwise" if Raptor does not succeed.

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Elon Musk tells SpaceX employees that Starship engine crisis is creating a 'risk of bankruptcy' - CNBC

(Nestron)

Tiny homes are getting bigger.

Nestron, a prefabricated home builder based in Singapore, unveiled Cube Two X, its newest, priciest and biggest model, Insider reported. Its 377 square feet and starts at $98,000.

Cubex Two X is about twice the price of its Cube Two predecessor, which measures about 280 square feet, although Nestron does make 360-square-feet premium models under its Legend series.

The new model is roughly the same size as units made by rival Boxabl, which got some big press this year when SpaceX founder Elon Musk started living primarily out of one of its prefabricated units at a SpaceX property in Boca Chica, Texas. The two companies say their homes can be delivered and set up in a day.

The Cube Two X comes in a one-bedroom and a two-bedroom configuration. They each include living rooms, kitchens, dining areas and bathrooms. Theres also a sofa bed in each.

(Nestron)

The sleek futuristic design has large windows in the bedroom and in the living room. Furnishings are made of compressed wood and stainless steel.

The kitchen in the one-bedroom is meant to accommodate a double-door refrigerator and a washing machine. Customers can also add solar power systems and composting toilets.

The company said that 70 percent of its clients are in the U.S. and that it plans to launch its own distribution operation in the country. For now, Nestron says it can deliver homes within 30 to 45 days.

In the U.S., prefabricated construction methods have generally been used more for modular projects larger developments such as apartment buildings assembled from prefabricated individual units.

Modular builder Plant Prefab recently scored $30 million in a Series B funding round to expand its multifamily and single-family operations. Warren Buffet is also getting in on the prefab business.

[Business Insider] Dennis Lynch https://www.businessinsider.com/photos-nestron-98000-cube-two-x-smart-prefab-tiny-home-2021-10

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Singapores Nestron unveils its biggest and priciest tiny home - The Real Deal

The SpaceX rocket being developed in South Texas is either a God-given use of natural resources or a stain on the environment, depending who you ask.

The companys Super Heavy rocket and Starship spacecraft have become a massive silver beacon in an otherwise undeveloped area outside of Brownsville. It lures supporters excited for economic growth, innovation and the exploration of space. And it draws criticism as an unnatural, often explosive intruder in an area beloved for birdwatching and the beach.

On Monday, both sides met via Zoom to lobby federal regulators. Super Heavy and Starship are being developed to carry people to the moon, Mars and beyond.

RELATED: Elon Musk brings exploding rockets and real estate to South Texas. Not everyone is happy.

More than 50 people many of whom do not live in South Texas provided comments on a draft environmental review that was released last month by the Federal Aviation Administration. Another virtual public hearing will be held Wednesday at 5 p.m.

Pearl Smith used her three minutes to cite Scripture from the Bible.

How can we see what lights are in the sky or what are beyond the lights of the fourth day of creation if we dont allow SpaceX to go into outer space? she asked. We are not created for the Earth. The Earth is created for us human beings.

Others pleaded with the FAA not to impede SpaceXs rapid pace of innovation. And some worried about humanity not being prepared for an asteroid like the one that killed the dinosaurs.

We have an opportunity to look beyond the small environmental impact that is a few bangs and a few booms, said Mitchell Maxey, and we should look beyond to a bigger bang and a bigger boom that might happen here on Earth.

SpaceX neighbors, however, detailed disruption to their lives. Environmental groups described explosions and fires that have already damaged the sensitive habitats of rare, threatened and endangered species. They argued that the environmental review lacked important information and called for a more rigorous review.

This is not an episode of freaking Star Trek, Brownsville resident Emma Guevara said. This is our lives. This is our home. I can see the explosions from the rockets from my window. The last time that there was an explosion here, they could not clean up our beach. The beach where I played as a child. The beach where my family has gone fishing.

Those opposed to the project want a more rigorous environmental impact statement rather than the environmental assessment SpaceX prepared under FAA supervision.

Guevara said the beach is one that thousands of people have used as a both a place of recreation and for food.

SpaceX cannot launch the combined Super Heavy rocket and Starship spacecraft into orbit until the FAA, which issues commercial launch licenses, completes its licensing process. The environmental review is part of this process.

This review outlines how SpaceX might impact the regions air quality, noise level, wildlife, water and more. It also provides insight into the companys operations in Boca Chica.

The combined Super Heavy and Starship are expected to be 400 feet tall. The Super Heavy could have up to 37 Raptor rocket engines, and the Starship could have up to six of them. To date, the Starship prototypes have conducted high-altitude flights in South Texas using three engines.

REGULATORY DRAMA: Inside the FAA-SpaceX regulatory saga that delayed Starship SN9

Once operational, the combined rocket and spacecraft could launch to orbit five times a year.

Launches and tests could be more frequent while the company develops the vehicles. Starship could take suborbital flights, in which the vehicle climbs to a high altitude and then lands without circling the Earth, up to 20 times a year. Super Heavy could launch three times a year, suborbital or orbital, with or without the Starship on top.

During the development phase, Texas 4, the only road leading to the SpaceX facility, could be closed for up to 500 hours a year for nominal operations, which means everything is going as planned. SpaceX is seeking an additional 300 hours a year to clean up debris after explosions, crash landings or other anomalies.

Ellen Tyma lives off Texas 4 and is 12 miles from the launch facility. She described reckless driving and said she often sees dead animals on the side of the road.

Sharon Almaguer said her house in Port Isabel shook when the three-engine Starship prototypes launched and is concerned about widespread property damage when the Super Heavy lifts off.

What is the worst-case scenario if Starship/Super Heavy explodes on or above the launch pad? asked Jim Chapman, president of the Friends of the Wildlife Corridor, a support group for Santa Ana and the Lower Rio Grande Valley national wildlife refuges. The draft (environmental assessment) does not contain a launch failure analysis.

Brownsville resident Bekah Hinojosa was unhappy with how the FAA has interacted with residents in the Rio Grande Valley. She said the FAA should have issued a 30-day notice in Spanish that the public hearing should have comments translated in Spanish.

Jernimo Reyes-Retana said the environmental review needed to better consider impacts on nearby Tamaulipas, Mexico.

The document exposes lack of trans-boundary concern, Reyes-Retana said, never stating SpaceXs intentions to build a horizontal dialogue with the neighboring Mexican communities.

QUESTION: Do you take Elon Musks money and run?

Many people from outside of Texas voiced support for the company. They said SpaceX was essential for returning to the moon and giving the U.S. national security capabilities, and that the companys footprint was small compared to the surrounding natural areas.

You should really, in your evaluation, look beyond just Boca Chica and see all the beneficial impacts that SpaceX can have and Starship can have on the rest of the worlds environment, said Markus Mobius, who is planning to visit Boca Chica with his family. I hope that you will find imaginative solutions that will not slow-walk this project to death.

Some Brownsville-area residents support the project.

Austin Barnard, who has developed a social media following by taking photos and sharing updates of the SpaceX progress, said the company has provided the community with hope for the future. I find it really awe-inspiring and just, honestly, beautiful, he said.

And Brownsville Commissioner Jessica Tetreau-Kalifa said the Brownsville area was once named the poorest community in the United States.

Were no longer in that position, she said. We are now one of the most sought-after ZIP codes to live and raise your children in. I dont just ask you, I beg you to give (SpaceX) that permit. There are so many people here in the Brownsville area who have befitted from this project.

The FAA will accept written comments through Nov. 1. The final environmental assessment will reflect the FAAs consideration of comments and provide responses to substantive comments.

If the FAA determines the potential environmental impacts would be significant and not properly mitigated to less-than-significant levels the agency would conduct the more intensive environmental impact statement.

andrea.leinfelder@chron.com

twitter.com/a_leinfelder

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Federal regulators hear the pros, cons of SpaceX's work in ...

Enlarge / SpaceX's Booster 4 is lifted onto its orbital launch mount in South Texas.

The Federal Aviation Administration released a draft environmental review of SpaceX's plans for orbital launches from South Texas on Friday, kicking off a 30-day public comment period.

The long-awaited procedural step is the first of several regulatory hurdles that SpaceX must clear before obtaining final permission to launch its Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage from a site near Boca Chica, Texas. Such a launch likely remains months away, but it now appears that the feds will ultimately greenlight South Texas for orbital launches. That seemed far from assured before today.

The document, formally called a Draft Programmatic Environmental Assessment,evaluates the potential environmental impacts of SpaceXs Starship program, including launch and reentry. It also reviews debris recovery, the integration tower and other launch-related construction, and local road closures between Brownsville and Boca Chica beach.

For the large majority of these analyses, the FAA document finds "no significant impacts."The impact of noise to surrounding communities, including South Padre Island located several miles away, was believed to be one of the biggest concerns. But an independent assessment found noise levels to be manageable.

One exception came under the "biological resources" category. "The FAA has determined the Proposed Action would adversely affect species listed under and critical habitat designated under the federal Endangered Species Act," the report states. However, there may be a way to mitigate these impacts. Another potential area of concern is excessive road closures of Highway 4. This may be one reason why SpaceX is proposing an average of five Super Heavy launches per year during the operational phase of the program.

Following the release of this draft assessment, the FAA will hold virtual public hearings on October 6 and 7 before the public comment period ends on October 18, 2021. SpaceX founder Elon Musk asked for support on Twitter shortly after the FAA released the draft document. "Please add your voice to the public comments," Musk said. "Support is greatly appreciated! Humanitys future on the moon, Mars & beyond depends upon it."

After the public comment period closes, the FAA will finalize its environmental assessment. Following this, the FAA will issue one of three rulings:a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI), a Mitigated FONSI, or a Notice of Intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement. A "FONSI" would allow the formal launch licensing process to proceed. If a full Environmental Impact Statement is needed, launches from South Texas would likely be delayed by months, if not years, as more paperwork is completed.

SpaceX has not revealed the full extent of its launch plans for Super Heavy and Starship, but the document suggests the company may eventually land its Super Heavy booster down range on a platform in the Gulf of Mexico, and Starship may land in remote islands in the Pacific Ocean. SpaceX also will likely conduct launches from a platform in the Gulf of Mexico, as well as a pad at Kennedy Space Center.

The upside of Friday's document release is that SpaceX can now move forward with some confidence that it ultimately will at least be able to conduct orbital test flights of Super Heavy and Starship from South Texas. This is critical as the site is just a couple of kilometers from the factory where the company assembles the giant rocket and spacecraft.

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The FAA releases initial report on Boca Chica launches ...

Elon Musk seemed strangely casual in dropping the biggest news to come out of Teslas virtual shareholder meeting on Thursday afternoon. Streaming from inside the so-called Gigafactory the company is building in southeastern Travis County, on a raised dais in front of a red-and-white-painted manufacturing assembly line, the billionaire announced that Tesla is moving its headquarters from Palo Alto, California, to the Austin area. Muskhimself a newly minted Texandidnt offer much of a satisfactory explanation why.

He talked about how Tesla had outgrown its California factory, but thats a reason to build a new factory, not move the corporate HQ. He noted that employees there are having a hard time affording houses and are facing long commutes. (Of course, Austin hardly offers the cheap living it once did.) Musk said also that there was a limit to how big you can scale in the Bay Area. He expects Tesla to continue growing, and he seems to believe that growth will prove easier in Texas.

Musk, wearing a black T-shirt and sporting a bandanna around his neck, heaped praise on the new Austin facility. He marveled that the sprawling facilitywhich will produce electric vehicles, including the Cybertruckis so convenient to the airport (five minutes) and downtown (fifteen minutes). He promised to create an ecological paradise along the Colorado River, which runs alongside the Gigafactory property. Yet fifteen minutes from the factory to downtown is a little optimistic, even in ludicrous mode, and that stretch of the Colorado isnt exactly some prelapsarian wonder, though its nice enough if you dont mind the occasional pipeline buried in the muck.

There are other potential reasons for the move. For one, automakers sure like Texas. Toyota relocated its North American headquarters to Plano from the Los Angeles area in 2017. The Japanese company continues to grow its operations in San Antonio as well, with Navistar expected to begin making commercial trucks there next year. Meanwhile, electric truck maker Rivian is reportedly in talks to build a large factory outside of Fort Worth.

Its also true that California companies have been flocking to Texas. The states low taxes, relatively affordable housing, tort reform climate, and ease of building have all contributed to the draw. Between January 2018 and June 2021, several dozen corporate headquarters relocated from the Golden State to the Lone Star State, spanning the alphabet from software company Aatonomy to the firm Zoho. Other notable arrivals: Silicon Valley heavyweight Oracle and Pabst Brewing. Musk has telegraphed Teslas exit from California for more a year. He famously clashed with Alameda County, California, officials in 2020 over reopening the companys Bay Area factory amid the coronavirus epidemic. He threatened to move its headquarters to Texas or Nevada in a tweet in May 2020, beginning a public courting by Texas officials.

Lets not discount as well that Musk seems to genuinely like Austin and Texas, having announced his own move late last year. (Hes said hes mostly been living in a tiny home near the Boca Chica testing site of his aerospace company SpaceX.) Plus, as some on my Twitter feed have noted, he just ended a long-term relationship with Grimes and, apparently, moving to Austin after a big breakup is kind of clich.

But there are likely more significant reasons behind Teslas decision. Most people think of it as a car company, and the vast majority of its revenue (85 percent) comes from producing electric vehicles. Yet Musk has long declared that Tesla isnt solely an automaker. Teslas mission has always been tied to sustainability, the company wrote five years ago, in announcing it would acquire solar energy company SolarCity.

I think long-term Tesla Energy will be roughly the same size as Tesla Automotive, Musk said last year. Hes moving an electric car company to a state that suffered a massive electric grid failure eight months ago. In his mind, that failure wasnt a deterrent. It was an opportunity. Musk spoke at length this week about using Tesla batteries to stabilize grids and creating a sustainable energy future.Texas Monthly reported in August that Tesla had filed paperwork to begin selling electricity in Texas. And work on Teslas first large battery in Texas, outside of Houston, continues. What greater challenge is there than becoming an energy company that rethinks energy? If thats where Tesla is headed, why not move to Texas? The state still lives and breathes the energy business.

Teslas ambitions continue to grow. A few minutes before announcing the headquarters move, Musk waxed philosophical about the fundamental good of Tesla. In his mind, that isnt building the first mass-market electric vehicle or muscling in on the global automakers club. It is by how many years did we accelerate sustainable energy. This is the fundamental, I think, way to think of the value of Tesla. And so if we are able to accelerate sustainable energy five more years, that is good.Hence the need to grow quickly.

This is the Musk mentality. Tesla is a force for good in the world, therefore it needs to grow quickly. So what better place to grow quickly than pro-growth, pro-business Texas? If Musk sees Tesla as a new kind of energy company, or at least a company ushering in a new era of energy, then it makes sense to be in Texas. Legendary oilman H.L. Hunt came to Texas to make his fortune, as did Lee Raymond (a South Dakotan), who made his mark on Exxon. If Musk wants to likewise stamp his likeness upon the energy industry, before departing for Mars, it makes sense to do it from Texas.

Read more from the original source:

Why Tesla Is Moving to Texas Texas Monthly