SpaceX continues to acquire land in Texas for its planned spaceport in Brownsville.
The competition heats up: SpaceX continues to acquire land in Texas for its planned spaceport in Brownsville.
Elon Musk’s Dogleg Park LLC picked up an additional five lots in late April, bringing the total number of lots it has acquired in Cameron County to 95. The total land area that SpaceX now owns is roughly 38 acres of land, public records show. This is in addition to 56.5 acres that SpaceX has under lease at the site of what would be the world’s first private and commercial vertical launch site.
Compared to the acquisitions made by the federal government when it established its space centers in Florida and Wallops Island, these purchases are small. Nonetheless, they are likely sufficient for what the company plans to do.
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The competition heats up: SpaceX continues to acquire land in Texas for its planned spaceport in Brownsville.
Elon Musk’s Dogleg Park LLC picked up an additional five lots in late April, bringing the total number of lots it has acquired in Cameron County to 95. The total land area that SpaceX now owns is roughly 38 acres of land, public records show. This is in addition to 56.5 acres that SpaceX has under lease at the site of what would be the world’s first private and commercial vertical launch site.
Compared to the acquisitions made by the federal government when it established its space centers in Florida and Wallops Island, these purchases are small. Nonetheless, they are likely sufficient for what the company plans to do.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
94 acres, assuming it is in a circle with the rocket at the center, gives a safety range of around 1100 feet. Pretty close to the neighbors if something goes boom. I think they need to add a few orders of magnitude to their land acquisition.
The Gulf of Mexico itself will be a huge part of that safety range. We have yet to hear how that will be implemented, however.
An explosion on or just above the pad would create quite a mess and hazard for any people or structures nearby. 1100 feet seems like much too little safety distance.
Boca Chica Beach, where they seem to be buying and leasing land, is in a fairly watery area with lakes, a bay, and the Rio Grande river. Depending upon the locations and geography of the lots that they have bought and leased, they may have quite a bit more than a mere 1100 feet for safety. If they put the pad next to or into the water or on one of the islands in the bay, that would add extra safety distance.
It would be nice to see a map of what they have planned.
I found an article that says that part of Joanna Street will be closed for SpaceX.
http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/valley/article_6f177afc-07b1-11e3-a736-0019bb30f31a.html
“Seven of the 12 lots, where the control center area site would be located, are between a portion of Remedios Avenue and Joanna Street, as shown in public records and a survey provided to Commissioners’ Court that the engineering firm of Mejia & Rose Inc., conducted on Dogleg Park LLC’s behalf. The survey is dated July 3.”
I hope this link directs you to a map of the region:
https://maps.yahoo.com/place/?lat=25.987269802616886&lon=-97.18653917312622&q=Joanna%20Street%2C%20Brownsville%2C%20Texas&bb=25.99587198816584%2C-97.20290064811707%2C25.97868627699692%2C-97.17017769813538&addr=Joanna%20St%2C%20Brownsville%2C%20TX%2078521
That brings up another question. How does a private company clear the boats out of downrange? There’s a lot of pleasure and shrimp boats at Padre Island.
At the Cape, the closest you can get to an Atlas 5 launch is just under 5 miles. This cannot be talking about a launch facility. It has to be just administration and flight control.
Just loke the cows on the videos of SpaceX’s reusability demonstration videos, those who destroy wild life by over fishing it, and those who sail by out of personal pleasure, have to adapt to the conditions of modern infrastructure without which they could not survive. Neither fisher nor yacht would have a clue as to where they are without navigation satellites and many of them would die every day. If they choose to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, then they simply made a bad call. That’s not a headache for SpaceX.
I should have kept that land in Texas. Dang.