Launch

Well, somehow, SpaceX got approval from the FAA on Saturday, Oct 12, for a Sunday, Oct 13 launch. What happened to "no license will be issued until late November"? That's what the FAA said just a few weeks ago. Maybe Elon really did satisfy their lingering concerns, or whatever. Hopefully everything is on the up-and-up, but who knows?

So I got up at 6:30am on Sunday morning, in time to make coffee and go outside on the balcony for the launch scheduled for a 7:00am-7:30am window. (Why is it that every time I set a wake-up alarm on my phone, I wake up a few minutes before it goes off? I'm not complaining, but it happens every time. It's just weird. If I don't have an alarm set, I can sleep till the sun comes up, or later. But set an alarm for 6:30am and I will wake up a few minutes before it goes off. What is that? Old age? When I was working, I'd set an alarm and would have to snooze it once or twice. Doesn't work like that any longer.)

ANYWAY, we had a perfectly clear sky Sunday morning. Perfect for a launch. I was watching the SpaceX feed on my phone, along with LabPadre on another device, and waiting for the launch now set for 7:25am, just at the edge of the window. My house is about 6 miles from the launch pad (far too close), and it takes about 10 seconds for the sounds to actually reach us from Boca Chica. But when we hear it, damn, it is quite loud....a crackling, flapping sound, and the house shook again like crazy for 30 seconds, at least. It's very unsettling to feel the floor under your feet vibrating rapidly. 

The rocket took off without a hitch, and before 7 minutes from launch had passed, the booster rocket came back down to the launch pad (it's going wayyyy too fast!!) and they actually caught it as they'd planned in the "chopsticks" attached to the same launch tower it had used just minutes before. Have to admit it was pretty impressive. 

One thing we learned this launch, which we had not experienced before....SpaceX said, rather quietly, that there could be a sonic boom when the booster returned to the launch pad. Oh, in addition to our houses shaking like leaves, there will be some sonic booms? Oh, lovely. Yes, it was returning to the pad MUCH FASTER than it had launched just minutes before, and that caused a really loud sonic boom. I remember sonic booms from when I was a kid, but they were more like a just a muffled BOOM. This one was really loud and sounded like a sharp CRACK! It made both of us jump, it was so loud. And with the sound delay from the launch pad, the video showed the booster had been caught, and I thought, hey! No sonic boom. And them CRACK!!! I'm sure our homes will be just fine, thank you.

Over time, this shit will certainly fuck with our houses. No way you can take that kind of shaking long-term, and Elon wants to launch 2-3 rockets PER WEEK from Boca Chica. I predict our home will be rubble before too much longer. Hmmm...I wonder if our homeowner's insurance policy covers damage from repeated (too close) rocket launches. I think I'd better look into that.

Sea Roaches

Another in the Beachcombing series from the Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, an interdisciplinary institute dedicated to advancing the long-term sustainable use and conservation of the Gulf of Mexico.

Sea Roaches!?

SpaceX

Word going around South Padre Island is that SpaceX is going to launch its 3rd Starship mega-rocket this coming Sunday, October 13, 2024. Local boat operators are making posts on Facebook seeking customers who want to float in the channel and watch the launch.

Starship stacked and ready to launch from Boca Chica.

Only one problem with that: the FAA has announced that there will be no launch license issued until late November, so if Musk launches this Sunday, it will be without an FAA license.

What would be the consequences of such an act by SpaceX, to launch a huge rocket without a launch license? Would they just fine him? Would they enact more drastic penalties? 

Ever since SpaceX started major construction at Boca Chica, Texas back in 2018, the Musk "bros" have been invading the area. Rocket groupies are all over the planet. They seem to not care about the people who happen to live within just a few miles of the launch pads at Boca Chica. As long as they "launch that sucker!" they are ecstatic. There have been a few explosions at Boca Chica so far, but none on the scale of the launchpad explosion at Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida on September 1, 2016, during a static-fire test.

Early on, I thought it was kinda cool to have a rocket facility in deep south Texas. It certainly brought some economic activity to the area around Brownsville, one of the poorest areas in the country. And of course Musk gave the city of Brownsville $30 million to renovate the Brownsville downtown sector, so politicians just love the guy. Musk can do no wrong, according to many.

SpaceX had done some short hops at Boca Chica to test some things, but nothing like the first launch of Starship in Spring of 2023. During that launch, our house shook like mad, and we are about 6 miles from the launchpad, as the crow flies. Windows across the island and over in Port Isabel shattered. Ours didn't, perhaps because we have hurricane-resistant windows on this house, but the feeling of the house shaking was nauseating and frightening.

That is when I did some map measurements. At KSC in Florida, the closest residential homes are about 11 miles away from the iconic launch pad 39A. Here, on SPI, some homes and structures are only 3 miles away from the launchpads at Boca Chica. I'd say we are a little too close, or, rather, he is too close to us, but don't forget those politicians and civic leaders who have their hands out. It's no problem, they said.

And now Musk has transformed into some sort of "Dark MAGA." Huge Trump supporter, jumping around like a trained monkey. Probably thinks Trump would give him a huge tax cut, and Kamala Harris would not. I think it's about as simple as that. Not only do his electric cars catch fire when saltwater comes into contact with them, his cybertrucks are becoming uninsurable, he may be launching rockets without permission, and he's suddenly a huge right-winger. Oh, and he is the richest man on the planet. 

Al Cardenas

Cuban-born Al Cardenas is one of many Republicans who have announced their support for Kamala Harris. As usual, they are not so much enamored of Harris and Walz as they are disgusted with Donald Trump. Hey, whatever it takes. Found the article below on Newsweek.

Former Florida GOP Chair Backs Kamala Harris: 'Preserve Our Republic'

October 7, 2024

By Alia Shoaib

Al Cardenas, a former chairman of the Florida Republican Party, said on Sunday he has voted for Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, becoming the latest Republican to back former President Donald Trump's opponent in this year's election.

Cardenas revealed who he was voting for while filling out his absentee ballot in a video posted to X, formerly Twitter.

"I voted for Kamala Harris. And I did so to preserve our republic," Cardenas said. "My vote was cast this year not so much on policy issues, although I would have cast the same vote. It was based on preserving our democracy, respecting our institutions, being compassionate towards others, eliminating the damaging rhetoric towards immigrants. A whole lot of good reasons I voted for Kamala Harris."

He added: "But I have to admit the main reason was because I did not want Donald Trump sitting at the White House running our country."

The video was shared by political commentator Ana Navarro-Cardenas, who is Cardenas' wife and a vocal Trump critic.

Newsweek has reached out to Trump's campaign for comment via email.

Cardenas, a lawyer and top lobbyist who also worked under former President Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush's administrations, is also the former chairman of the American Conservative Union. He was also a top adviser to Jeb Bush's 2016 presidential campaign.

Cardenas has also long been a critic of Trump. In 2018, he described the then-president as a "despicable divider" and "social poison." In addition, Cardenas said earlier this year that it "breaks my heart" to see MAGA (Make America Great Again) takeover of the Republican National Committee (RNC), which he described as the "demise" of his party.

Navarro-Cardenas wrote on X that her husband had worked for decades to build the Republican Party and was the first Republican Cuban-American to run for Congress in Florida, chair the Republican Party in the state and the ACU.

"He fled a dictator & values the freedom to vote his conscience. This wasn't easy. He put #CountryOverParty & just voted for @KamalaHarris," she wrote.

Cardenas has become the latest Republican to denounce Trump and say that they are voting for Harris.

Former Representative Liz Cheney, a Wyoming Republican, campaigned with Harris in Wisconsin on Thursday. Cheney has previously revealed that her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, will also be voting for Harris.

The former congresswoman has often distanced herself from some of the more extreme elements of her party, including election deniers, particularly after her break with Trump and the MAGA faction following the events of the January 6th, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot and her role as vice-chair of the January 6th select committee that investigated the insurrection.

Meanwhile, several other Republicans have said they plan to vote for Harris. These include more than 100 former members of Congress and national security officials from previous Republican administrations who signed a letter in September calling Trump "unfit to serve again" as president.

Trump is favored in Florida, where he is officially a resident, having won the state in the past two elections, 2016 and 2020. However, the state previously went blue, voting for former President Barack Obama twice. FiveThirtyEight's aggregate state poll shows Trump up 4.1 percentage points in the state (49.7 percent to 45.6 percent) as of Monday morning.

Original.