News

They got approval from the fish and wildlife agency before launching with the deluge system

https://www.tpr.org/technology-entrepreneurship/2023-11-16/faa-gives-ok-to-spacex-for-second-starship-launch

Published November 16, 2023 at 9:00 AM CST

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has approved SpaceX’s next Starship launch, just hours after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) concluded its assessment of the rocket’s launch infrastructure.

The FAA gave the company a launch license Wednesday afternoon, saying Starship and its new launch infrastructure would have “no significant environmental changes” for its second launch.

FWS stated that SpaceX’s water deluge system, meant to suppress the flames and sound from the rocket’s 33 engines, would produce the same amount of water from an average rainfall. The agency does not expect the water to change the mud flats’ salinity or affect shorebird habitat.

*emphasis mine.

Flight 2 was on November 18th, 2 days after they get approval for the deluge system.

Edit: further, spacex has replied to this and said the following (among other things as well)

https://x.com/SpaceX/status/1823080774012481862

SpaceX worked with the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality (TCEQ) throughout the build and test of the water deluge system at Starbase to identify a permit approach. TCEQ personnel were onsite at Starbase to observe the initial tests of the system in July 2023, and TCEQ’s website shows that SpaceX is covered by the Texas Multi-Sector General Permit.

We only use potable (drinking) water in the system’s operation. At no time during the operation of the deluge system is the potable water used in an industrial process, nor is the water exposed to industrial processes before or during operation of the system.

We send samples of the soil, air, and water around the pad to an independent, accredited laboratory after every use of the deluge system, which have consistently shown negligible traces of any contaminants. Importantly, while CNBC's story claims there are “very large exceedances of the mercury” as part of the wastewater discharged at the site, all samples to-date have in fact shown either no detectable levels of mercury whatsoever or found in very few cases levels significantly below the limit the EPA maintains for drinking water.

Heavy metals are some of the worst things to dump into the environment, and I'm curious to see where the mercury is coming from, why they're using it, and how they're going to address it, but it really feels like you're blowing up a relatively small issue into a massive one.

They had one launch where they blew up the launch pad accidentally, so they added a deluge system to cope. Now there's mercury toxicity downstream of the site, but it's not clear it has anything to do with the deluge system.

The Elon hate is one thing, and I believe much of the hate for SpaceX is because of how he handles himself and his companies.

That absolutely is where most of it comes from. Articles that hate on Elon get clicks, so for every actual thoughtful nuanced critique of SpaceX, there's two dozen click bait articles written by glorified bloggers that will look for any flaw because critiques of Musk's space company drives traffic.

But the general assurance has largely been that SpaceX has a team of handlers to keep him from screwing things up, and it sounds more like Boeing over there every day.

Boeing is failing to do what they used to do 50 years ago. SpaceX is successfully doing things that no one has ever done. Yes the wreckless rule breaking is trademark Elon, but let's not be hyperbolic.

mercury measurements 50x higher than the Texas maximum threshold for acute mercury toxicity

It is possible that this entire story is based on two typos in the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality report.