It's not really a 5 mile safety radius. They just drew the line there because that's where the ship channel is and they didn't want people stranded on the beach south of it. The launches will only be 2 1/2 miles from the Mexican beach at the Rio Grande outlet.
Hopefully all that work isn't to waste and they get to use it as an awesome viewing area for BFS tests in 12-18 months.
Quote from: Lars-J on 09/20/2018 04:35 pmHopefully all that work isn't to waste and they get to use it as an awesome viewing area for BFS tests in 12-18 months.Yeah, I'm cringing a bit that it's publicly being referred to as the "SpaceX launch viewing complex". Given the company's current pivot on launch site usage, Boca Chica may not get used for full launches for quite some time. If ever. And the schedules for hopping tests which are currently planned for the relatively near future aren't likely to be widely pre-announced for the most part. Plus it won't offer spectacular viewing for low altitude hops. Which means that, even if they're cool, they might not be much of a viewing draw just because of planning/logistics issues. After all of which, people who are already going to be bummed that the planned tourist increases may not have eventuated will start feeling like SpaceX tricked them into spending a bunch of money by selling Pie in the Sky. The more closely that expansion is directly tied to SpaceX the worse the potential fall out.
Maybe this will pressure them to loosen the launch restrictions.What are they now?Not on weekendsNo more than 12Nothing bigger than a FHPretty restrictive and I assume this came from the county.
May 24, 2013: Gov. Rick Perry on Friday signed into law a proposal to temporarily close a beach on the southern tip of Texas during rocket launches, a move that allows the state to remain competitive for a SpaceX launch site.House Bill 2623 gives state officials permission to close the public Boca Chica Beach, near Brownsville, for up to 12 rocket launches a year. The proposal prohibits beach closures during the Memorial Day and Labor Day holiday weekends...
I wonder, is the latest BFS design with the 3 fins still shorter than Falcon 9?
Would launching BFR from a platform say 5-10 miles offshore in this location get them the freedom to have many more launches without a need to close any beaches?