SpaceX's Starship explodes in space, again raining debris over Caribbean

reuters.com

8 points·alistairSH··4 comments

Can anybody provide a summary of how Boca Chica was selected & approved?

It strikes me than an east coast (you know, like Cape Canaveral or Wallops Island) launch site would be better - any debris would tend to fall into the Atlantic and not screw up long-standing airline operations.

Regulations I imagine. Texas loves BBQ, guns and less gov. regs.

I'm sure that was part of it, but I'm assuming FAA and/or NASA had to sign off?

If the site generally works, whatever that's fine. But for newer rocket designs that are prone to showering debris over thousands of miles, why not test those out of launch facilities less likely to disrupt other people's lives?

SpaceX bought the land and applied to and received approval from the FAA to conduct launches there. First as a set number of Falcon flights per year, then a small number of Starship test launches, and now up to 25 Starship orbital launches per year.

They have been pursuing a Starship integration and launch facility at Cape Canaveral in parallel to this, but the Texas site allowed them to move more quickly and be their own range control.

Getting approval for, building, and operating a launch site as part of Kennedy Space Center / Cape Canaveral is a lot more complex.

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