SpaceX May Need Boca Chica AND Puerto Rico According to Slashdot Commenters

Slashdot, the website that refers to itself as supplying "News for Nerds," had a brief article about SpaceX's interest in the Boca Chica site for its rocket launch pad.


The article received 69 comments, some disparaging to Brownsville, some mildly complimentary.  


While the article itself focused on the difficulty of scheduling commercial launches around NASA, especially with government launches receiving priority, several commenters discussed another issue:  recovery of the launch vehicle or the first stage.  Perhaps, this is not an issue at all, but for a private firm, it would seem to make sense.


Here is the one comment, suggesting Brownsville as a launch site with Puerto Rico as a landing spot for the first stage:

"I think this article misses the point. It has nothing to do with launch schedules at the Cape or politics. This has everything to do with recovering the first stage. Look at a map. He has to launch and recover in U.S. territory in order to to comply with U.S. arms export regulations. If this is true, pickup of the first stage in Florida is not much of an option. But Puerto Rico is perfectly position for a powered landing of the first stage when doing an equatorial launch from the Brownsville Texas area.

I predict the next announcement will be a landing site in Puerto Rico for recovery of the first stage. My question is, does he even need permission to land in Puerto Rico? Can't he just get permission to land at an airfield? We aren't talking about a launch, just a powered landing. I'm sure there would be regulatory hurdles, but nothing like that needed to build a launch site."

Another commenter doubts that Puerto Rico's location suits that purpose:

"If you look at the map (actually, a globe is easier for this), the minimum energy trajectory from Brownsville takes you through the Straits of Florida, and directly over the Bahamas, which would be a natural location to recover the first stage. (Anyone with the slightest knowledge of spacecraft dynamics knows that their video, which shows the first stage returning to Cape Canaveral, is disinformation. The first stage will be recovered downrange.)

That trajectory would avoid any inhabited land before the Bahamas, passing South of Miami and North of Havana, and could probably get FAA approval.

The Bahamas are not on the list of ITAR restricted countries [stanford.edu] and there are ~ 58 airstrips [wikipedia.org] there, including 3 closed ones, so SpaceX could presumably find somewhere suitable to land the first stage.

Another poster suggested Puerto Rico, which is unlikely as it would require both more energy and (worse) an overflight of Cuba. Soon after the revolution, an errant Atlas missile (launched from Cape Canaveral) landed in Cuba and killed a few cows. The Cuban government was, shall we say, unappreciative, and since then no missile trajectories have been permitted over Cuba. I don't see the FAA / Department of State making an exception for Space X, and I don't think ITAR regulations make it necessary."

So, while the Mean Mister Brownsville, El Rrun Rrun, BROWNSVILLE VOICE and Brownsville Blues  blogs have all questioned the Boca Chica beach site for SpaceX's rocket launch pad,  it's obvious many various and sundry issues beyond possible environmental damage come into play.