Residents Outraged Over Elon Musk’s Plans to Launch Dozens of Noisy Spacecraft in Their Backyard

The spacecraft has the power equivalent to 160 commercial airliners.

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Picture this: You’re relaxing on the porch of your Florida beach house, when suddenly, the deafening roar of a massive spacecraft thunders across the sky above you, shaking windows and doors with tremendous force.

Now imagine this happening more than 70 times a year.

This scenario seems increasingly likely because of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s plans to launch dozens of spaceflights a year from Cape Canaveral, Wall Street Journal Reports The prospect has alarmed residents, fishermen, airline pilots, environmentalists and even rival space companies.

At Cape Canaveral, Musk was looking for two separate launch sites for Starship, the world’s largest space rocket at 397 feet tall and a key hub for NASA’s future missions to the moon and Musk’s ambitions to colonize Mars.

One NASA-controlled site could see up to 44 Starship launches, according to NASA. The Wall Street Journal. At another site overseen by the Space Force, the spacecraft could launch up to 76 times a year.

That would be a huge hit, according to The Wall Street Journal, Because the giant spacecraft — currently being tested in Texas — has the same thrust as 160 Boeing 787 commercial jets taking off at the same time in one place..

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Residents are concerned about the noise, vibrations and environmental impact caused by the numerous rocket launches.

Environmentalists are also concerned about this possibility because local wildlife could be disturbed. The Wall Street Journal While commercial fishing operations and airline pilots are alarmed that launching spacecraft would shut down air and ocean traffic for hours.

Meanwhile, rivals, such as Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin, are concerned that Elon Musk’s Starship could grab the lion’s share of resources at the launch site.

Rocket launches already happen at Cape Canaveral several times a week, but the push to land on the Moon and Mars is sure to make this area even more crowded and noisy.

Officials at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which has been gathering public comment on Musk’s plans for Starship, said they are trying to ensure that any future launches will be safe and compliant with current environmental rules.

But that remains to be seen in light of July Report by The New York Times A recent study found that the Starship test flight site in Texas has seen 19 recorded acts of environmental destruction since 2019, all of them caused by rocket launches.

Perhaps after this public punishment, the FAA will take tougher action against Musk over environmental damage. If not, residents and other regulators are likely to keep a close eye on SpaceX’s launches.

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