THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 2012
THIS IS WHERE THE BLAST WILL HIT THE FAN ON BOCA CHICA
By Juan MontoyaThe details of the seemingly innocuous SpaceX launch pad proposed for construction a scant few miles from Boca Chica Beach has been released by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. on a request by Ms. Stacey Zee, of the Federal Aviation Administration.
And a cursory description of the site by the TPWD
indicates that unlike the Brownsville Economic Development Corporation's Gilbert Salinas' description of the "negligible footprint" the satellite launch pad, the footprint outlined in the letter is quite noticeable.
Rather than add fuel to the fire, let's just say that the propellant for the rockets SpaceX wants to launch is not – as Salinas is wont to say – like the kerosene you use in your campfire. Instead it is highly refined kerosene, or rocket propellant 1, capable of lifting SpaceX's Falcon 9 or Falcon Heavy with a gross lift weight of some 3.4 million pounds ( a heavy lift class launch vehicle). The rocket's length is just about 230 feet. In other words, it ain't no firecracker.
But rather than have Craig Groves call us nay-sayers and alarmists, we'll just allow you to see the document and judge for yourselves whether Salinas is right to call the area "a whole bunch of nothing." Apparently,. he has not been talking with the folks over at TPWD lately to know that there are some two scores of endangered species and unique geographical areas that will be directly impacted by the construction of the facility there and its control area some 1.5 miles away.
To read the entire letter click on the map or on the link below. Let the honest debate begin.
Space and Brownsville. Rockets and Brownsville. Just doesn't quite seem that you could ever use those two words with the name of our falling town. It's a sham, of course - a sick & cruel joke to be played before a populace more suited to flea markets and cheap border cantinas. What are the boys in the bar saying about this, Montoya? Ha ha ha. No doubt something like: "Pues, mira lo que quieren hacer los Gringos, Mateo!" And Mateo would throw out, "Otra vez nos pican los pinche ojos. Que Outer Space ni que Outer Space. Aqui hay solo un Esssspace - alla en la Unemployment Line." Why do what would seem to be semi-intelligent people fall for these cockamamie schemes? Are they just desperate for a sense of belonging? Are they being buffaloed by smarter brains? What's next, a wild hike in property taxes so that the city can build a domed stadium for the Dallas Cowboys off-season training? Chingos de nosotros would go for it. Because we are Brownsville! Because we blow. Because we have no original ideas. Because we talk in circles and walk in mud. All that energy going backward. My, my.
ReplyDelete2Empinate
(Why do what would seem to be semi-intelligent people fall for these cockamamie schemes?)
ReplyDeleteAhem. and YAWN!
2Cometetodamymierda
"Just doesn't quite seem that you could ever use those two words with the name of our falling town."
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, 100%.
2MeDejasQueTeLaMetaPorTodoElCulo
Well, I never....
ReplyDelete