I am a booster of human space exploration. I enjoy writing this blog about it. Up until recently, space exploration was the exclusive province of the national governments. In the U.S. NASA is the primary federal agency responsible for space exploration. However, in the past few years, private entrepreneurs have begun building and launching spacecraft.
While a lot of this business is under contract to NASA for government programs, a growing share is strictly private for profit. When new industries move into an area, there can be friction between the people who live there and the changes brought by the corporation that has moved in. The fracking industry has had a terrible impact on the people who live in North Dakota. Unfortunately, the new private space industry is not immune to this problem.
Last year, SpaceX selected Boca Chica Village, a tiny beach town in South Texas with a population of twenty six, to be the locations for the world's first commercial rocket-launch site. Up to this point, private space companies have been using government launch facilities. Boca Chica Village has about three dozen houses inhabited mainly by seasonal blue-collar workers and retirees.
The State of Texas worked hard to win the SpaceX launch facility, beating out Florida and Georgia. Texas offered about fifteen million dollars in economic incentives to get SpaceX to move there and a local development organization added an additional five million dollars to the package.
Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX and former Governor Rick Perry came to Boca Chica Village last September to take part in a groundbreaking ceremony for the new SpaceX launch facility. SpaceX has been buying property in the town and renaming some streets with space-related names such as Rocket Road and Mars Crossing. SpaceX also purchased a rundown house in the middle of the tiny town. The house has been used for meetings so far but the neighbors are suspicious about the future of the property. The anger and resistance of residence of Boca Chica Village to the arrival of SpaceX was unexpected but could have been predicted if any of the Texas officials had put any thought into it.
Recently residents of the town said that representatives from SpaceX told them that they would be required to register with the county. They would have to wear badges and pass through at least one checkpoint on days when launches were scheduled. Beginning next year, launches are expected to happen about once a month. In addition, within the fifteen hour launch window, movement around the area would be restricted and the public beach would be closed.
One of the big concerns of the residents of Boca Chica Village is their safety. When Cape Canaveral shuttles were launched, viewers were required to be at least three miles from the launch pad. Boca Chica Village is only two miles from the SpaceX launch site. Being this close to the launch, the residents could be exposed to dangerous chemicals such as hydrazine. Debris from explosions could rain down on the town. Residents of the town have been told that they may be asked to leave their homes during some launches.
SpaceX intends to enforce safety rules by video surveillance and drone flights over the beach. Needless to say, the residents of Boca Chica Village are not happy about this curtailment of their freedom of movement. Some of the residents have been talking about lawsuits and civil disobedience. The fact that SpaceX wants to close a public beach seems to be a violation of the Texas Open Beaches Act.
This is a sad story of a powerful corporation taking over a town and abusing the residents. It would have been much better for SpaceX to have found an uninhabited place to build its new launch facility.
