<mediadc-video-embed data-state="{"cms.site.owner":{"_ref":"00000161-3486-d333-a9e9-76c6fbf30000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b93390000"},"cms.content.publishDate":1655206074545,"cms.content.publishUser":{"_ref":"0000017d-fe9d-da96-ad7d-ffbf8a5c0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"cms.content.updateDate":1655206074545,"cms.content.updateUser":{"_ref":"0000017d-fe9d-da96-ad7d-ffbf8a5c0000","_type":"00000161-3461-dd66-ab67-fd6b933a0007"},"rawHtml":"
var _bp = _bp||[]; _bp.push({ "div": "Brid_55147641", "obj": {"id":"27789","width":"16","height":"9","video":"1031887"} }); ","_id":"00000181-61f8-d590-a5f1-e3fb4ed90000","_type":"2f5a8339-a89a-3738-9cd2-3ddf0c8da574"}”>Video EmbedSome locals in South Texas have expressed their frustration with the Federal Aviation Administration for allowing SpaceX to continue expanding its operations in Boca Chica.
Elon Musk’s private space program company will be allowed to expand after efforts to mitigate the environmental effects at the launch site. SpaceX will be required to take more than 75 actions to address any environmental problems before the company can expand its facility to conduct further flight tests for the Starship, the rocket the company hopes to send to Mars, the FAA said Monday.
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“This land, this beach, does not belong to Elon Musk and is not a commodity for his delusions of intergalactic grandeur,” Juan Mancias, chairman of the Carrizo/Comecrudo tribe, said in a statement to Business Insider. “SpaceX as a whole needs to be shut down.”
The Sierra Club, an environmental nonprofit group, also condemned the FAA’s decision.
“The FAA has failed the people of the Rio Grande Valley and the people of Texas,” said Dave Cortez, director of the Lone Star Chapter of the Sierra Club.
Some of the mitigation efforts that SpaceX will need to put in place include protections for surrounding water resources, limits on noise levels, and biohazard materials control.
Residents in the surrounding area must also be provided with advanced notice of road closures, which cannot fall on 18 specified holidays, the FAA ruled.
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The FAA’s review of SpaceX’s program first began in November 2020 as the company sought to build up its infrastructure in anticipation of new rocket testing. The agency’s ruling of a mitigated Finding of No Significant Impact spares the company of a more lengthy review of its operations.
SpaceX celebrated the FAA’s decision on Monday, tweeting, “One step closer to the first orbital flight test of Starship.”
