California’s Coastal Commission again rejects an increase in SpaceX’s launch rate at Vandenberg
Wants to be a dictator
As expected, the California Coastal Commission yesterday again rejected the proposed doubling of launches by SpaceX at the Vandenberg Space Force Base, from 50 to 100 launches per year, claiming this time it would destroy the environment.
“The sonic booms and their impacts on California’s people, wildlife and property are extremely concerning,” Commissioner Linda Escalante said at a hearing Thursday in Calabasas. “The negative impacts on public access, natural resources and environmental health warrant our scrutiny under California as a standard of review.”
The commissioners and its staff also argued that the launches were not related to national security or military purposes, but instead acted “to expand SpaceX’s commercial telecommunications network rather than serve federal agencies.” See the staff report [pdf] issued prior to the meeting.
The simple fact remains that it is a privately owned company engaged in activities primarily for its own commercial business. It is not a public federal agency or conducting its launches on
behalf of the federal government. It should therefore be regulated accordingly. [emphasis mine]
How dare SpaceX try to make a profit as a private company in America? And how dare the Space Force act as a servant of the people to provide this private company service? What have we come to?! Is communism and top-down authoritarian rule no longer America’s fundamental purpose?
Nor are the claims of the commission about the environment valid. They are simply Chicken Little screaming “The sky is falling!” We now have more than seven decades of empirical evidence — at Vandenberg, Cape Canaveral, and Kennedy — that spaceports do zero harm to the environment. If anything, they promote wildlife protection, as they create large refuges where development cannot occur.
This second meeting by the Coastal Commission was called not simply to reject SpaceX’s proposal. It was called to provide legal cover for the commission. When it rejected this launch proposal last year, it did not cite these more cogent but still bogus reasons. Instead, the commissioners opposed the proposal because they hated Elon Musk for supporting Donald Trump. That action violated Musk’s free speech rights, but more importantly it also violated SpaceX’s rights as a business. SpaceX has sued the commission, and the courts have since ruled the lawsuit can go forward.
SpaceX has a very strong case, and yesterday’s commission meeting was designed to give it arguments it can use in court against SpaceX. In a sane world where America’s foundational beliefs in freedom and private enterprise where the government is merely the servant of the people, these new arguments would carry no weight, and SpaceX would win easily. We no longer live in that world.
In the end this is all kabuki theater. The Space Force has already made it clear that it is agreeable to the increased launch rate, and the coastal commission has no authority to stop it.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Wants to be a dictator
As expected, the California Coastal Commission yesterday again rejected the proposed doubling of launches by SpaceX at the Vandenberg Space Force Base, from 50 to 100 launches per year, claiming this time it would destroy the environment.
“The sonic booms and their impacts on California’s people, wildlife and property are extremely concerning,” Commissioner Linda Escalante said at a hearing Thursday in Calabasas. “The negative impacts on public access, natural resources and environmental health warrant our scrutiny under California as a standard of review.”
The commissioners and its staff also argued that the launches were not related to national security or military purposes, but instead acted “to expand SpaceX’s commercial telecommunications network rather than serve federal agencies.” See the staff report [pdf] issued prior to the meeting.
The simple fact remains that it is a privately owned company engaged in activities primarily for its own commercial business. It is not a public federal agency or conducting its launches on
behalf of the federal government. It should therefore be regulated accordingly. [emphasis mine]
How dare SpaceX try to make a profit as a private company in America? And how dare the Space Force act as a servant of the people to provide this private company service? What have we come to?! Is communism and top-down authoritarian rule no longer America’s fundamental purpose?
Nor are the claims of the commission about the environment valid. They are simply Chicken Little screaming “The sky is falling!” We now have more than seven decades of empirical evidence — at Vandenberg, Cape Canaveral, and Kennedy — that spaceports do zero harm to the environment. If anything, they promote wildlife protection, as they create large refuges where development cannot occur.
This second meeting by the Coastal Commission was called not simply to reject SpaceX’s proposal. It was called to provide legal cover for the commission. When it rejected this launch proposal last year, it did not cite these more cogent but still bogus reasons. Instead, the commissioners opposed the proposal because they hated Elon Musk for supporting Donald Trump. That action violated Musk’s free speech rights, but more importantly it also violated SpaceX’s rights as a business. SpaceX has sued the commission, and the courts have since ruled the lawsuit can go forward.
SpaceX has a very strong case, and yesterday’s commission meeting was designed to give it arguments it can use in court against SpaceX. In a sane world where America’s foundational beliefs in freedom and private enterprise where the government is merely the servant of the people, these new arguments would carry no weight, and SpaceX would win easily. We no longer live in that world.
In the end this is all kabuki theater. The Space Force has already made it clear that it is agreeable to the increased launch rate, and the coastal commission has no authority to stop it.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
I think it is likely that the USSF has some rights of preemption as part of its agreement with SpaceX. That means it can bump a SpaceX payload for one of its own if it needs to get something into orbit RIGHT NOW. A higher launch cadence makes that ability more valuable and usable.
For example, say the USSF hypothetically wanted to place the entire California Coastal Commission into orbit RIGHT NOW, so that they could oversee the coast better… Elon would no doubt be the patriot he is and say “Yes sir – how high sir?!”
Ray Van Dune: That’s quite funny. Almost spilled my lunch all over myself.
Did you say Communism?
DEMOCRAT, DEMOCRAT / SOCIALIST, SOCIALIST, COMMUNIST
What today do politically active and radical Democrats, Democrat / Socialists, Socialists and Communists in America all have in common?
What ALL of the politically active and radical above seek is to control what you can say, see, think and freely do because ALL Democrat associated politics today is some degree of aspirational authoritarian Socialism which must as a matter of course result in Communism.
All in the pursuit of permanent political power and control. And that becomes clearer and clearer as the Democrats under increasing pressure are forced to reveal themselves and their agenda to the American people.
One of the above ideologies is just one degree from the other and they ALL exist on a slippery slope of political power acquisition.
A “progressive” Democrat will call themselves a Democrat / Socialist in order to distinguish themselves from the main body of the Democrat party which they rightly see as a liability. And they have modified their nomenclature in order to lessen your American natural Un comfortability with the term SOCIALISM. Many “progressives” through their “higher” education and indoctrination have developed a disdain for the founding of America and the existence of Capitalism. They have counter intuitively and intellectually developed a disdain for both America as it was founded, and Capitalism. The two things that every good thing in their lives sits upon and has allowed them their freedom of opinions based on their self-diagnosed moral and ideological superiority.
And where can we see this distinction between what some Democrats schizophrenically call themselves being revealed today?
What does former Democrat party President, Barak Hussein Obama have to say about a self-identified Democrat / Socialist who talks very much like a Marxist and a Communist, Zohran Mamdani the Democrat party nominee for mayor of New York City:
https://dailycaller.com/2025/08/14/barack-obama-zohran-mamdani-socialist-democratic-party-democrats-embrace-radicals-far-left-shift/
Former President Barack Obama reportedly phoned New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist, following Mamdani’s primary victory.
“Democrats have a choice. “Put the woke away,” or put it front and center. If Obama publicly embraces Mamdani, it will be hard to read as anything but a hard swing towards the latter. ”
Obama advisor, David Axelrod: “What I found when I went over to that office was a familiar spirit that I hadn’t seen in a while of just determined, upbeat idealism,” Mr. Axelrod reportedly told the outlet. “You may not agree with every answer he’s giving, or every idea he has, but he’s certainly asking the right questions, which is how do we make the country work for working people?”
He’s also asking questions like, “How do we make life worse for white people?” and “How do we make life worse for smart people?”
And what is the key in American Democrat, Democrat / Socialist, Socialist and Communist politics? Promote ignorance, racism, hatred and chaos, because that is exactly what they are all about. I can detect nothing other.
The Democrat party leadership need you to be full of hate and ignorance in order to further acquire and retain their political power. And the false promise of Socialism is their vehicle.
Are You Paying Attention Yet America? JGL 8/15/25
https://www.sigma3ioc.com/post/democrat-democrat-socialist-socialist-communist
No one is required to listen to the California Coastal Commission, right?
Steve White: More precisely, the commission has no authority over what the Space Force decides to do at Vandenberg. The commission however has a great deal of authority — all authoritarian — over state and privately held coastal sites. If you own beachfront, the commission will have its hand in your wallet, and its regulators on your back, and it can hurt you.