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#INTHEAIREVERYWHERE |
Vol. 21 No. 20 | Tuesday
May 17,
2022 |
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Space The Future Lifting Cargo |
The face of the future—lifting super heavy cargo payloads and passengers into space, on a mural in Brownsville, Texas created by PoPC. Once again part of the success of getting off the ground depends on action taken by aviators to get out of the environmental bullseye as the magnificent and huge SpaceX “Starship” works its way through the development process to eventually deposit heavyweight satellites into near earth orbit, and humans on the Moon and Mars. Turns out that SpaceX Starbase at Chica Village, Texas is located in the middle of a National Wildlife Refuge where recently Army Corps Engineers shut down further development of that base until SpaceX put into writing how their planned expansion in South Texas will affect that area. The Starship project has residents of Cameron County, Texas, sharply divided over the rocket facility's growth especially for possible impact upon some rare bird species in the aforementioned wildlife refuge. Interestingly the situation is not dissimilar to action around many airports of the world, including as example, John F. Kennedy International Airport, where the Five Towns area is also home of one of the largest and most varied bird populations on earth. The idea of moving air operations away from city centers and concentrated populations of people to shores and swamp areas ended as populations grew to include similar concern for endangered and rare varieties of animals decades ago. Today commercial aviation has adapted to existing with the birds fairly well. But the Super Heavy Rockets are a challenge that is really something else. So the man that engineered the once thought impossible acquisition of Twitter may have to figure on an equally big pivot to eliminate one impact that will be near impossible for anyone to miss, and that is a gigantic rocket, a titan of the heavens at takeoff. Some reports are mentioning earth-shaking window rattling for miles and ruffling feathers when Starship takes off.. Never mind that this big bertha spaceship will return all parts of itself gently back to Earth, something practically unheard of before. The era of Starship will change everything. So will the ever inventive rocketeers of tomorrow at some point have to move takeoff operations from land to maybe platforms at sea or even out into the middle of the ocean, eventually launching into space from repurposed oil drilling platforms to avoid impacting both people and coastal habitats? You look at SpaceX and its dreamers and doers, recalling something Charles Lindbergh wrote in 1927, after conquering the Atlantic Ocean by flying alone in a tiny single-engine aircraft from New York To Paris 95 years ago on May 21, 1927. “I owned the world at that hour as I rode over it. “Free of the earth, free of the mountains, free of the clouds. “But how inseparably I was bound to them.” |
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Vol. 21 No. 17 Easter 1960 With Animals Chuckles for April 16, 2022 |
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Publisher-Geoffrey Arend
• Managing Editor-Flossie Arend • Editor Emeritus-Richard
Malkin Film Editor-Ralph Arend • Special Assignments-Sabiha Arend, Emily Arend |
Send comments and news to geoffrey@aircargonews.com 100% Green |