SpaceX officials hope to soon launch and land massive 492-foot Starship-Super Heavy rockets up to 44 times a year at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
But Titusville resident Susan Palma, 40, fears that more headland development risks further disrupting the natural water flow and salinity of the endangered Indian River Lagoon. She attended an environmental meeting Wednesday about the potential impacts of Starship, armed with a written statement warning of the dangers of hazardous materials and fauna adversely affected by air, light and noise pollution.
“I moved to the river in 2011. And within three years, my coast went from salty, coastal to dead. It’s still dead. There is no grass. There are no plants. No more manatees,” Palma said.
Cape Canaveral:Is there a launch today? Upcoming SpaceX, NASA, ULA rocket launch schedule in Florida
“It’s dead. It’s brown. It stinks. It’s muddy and muddy. And it’s been 10 years. I’m actually thinking of moving out. If they start expanding the space center, and they don’t pay attention to the environmental (effects), I’ll probably move out,” she said.
On Wednesday, the Radisson Resort at Cape Canaveral Harbor hosted two open houses about the potential environmental impacts of the Starship-Super Heavy. The Federal Aviation Administration is taking comments on SpaceX’s plan to bring the megarocket system to Pad 39A.
A collection of event experts asked questions one-on-one at eight poster-anchored stations in a conference room. The FAA is the lead agency for the environmental impact statement. Other federal agencies involved: NASA and the US Air Force, the Coast Guard, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Park Service.
On Thursday, the FAA will take comments during a similar Starship-Super Heavy public meeting from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Debus Conference Facility in the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
A virtual meeting will then take place on Monday from 6pm to 8pm More details:
- Zoom URL: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89402979916
- Increase Meeting ID: 894 0297 9916
- Optional call numbers: 833-928-4608, 833-928-4609 or 833-928-4610.
The virtual meeting will include “an automated closed-caption presentation describing the purpose of the scoping meetings, the project schedule, opportunities for public participation, a summary of proposed actions and alternatives, and a summary of the environmental resource area,” the FAA said.
In addition to launch, SpaceX offers Super Heavy booster and Starship landings at Pad 39A and unmanned craft in the Atlantic Ocean; expend Super Heavy boosters in the Atlantic Ocean at least 5 nautical miles offshore; and expend starships in open ocean between 55 degrees south latitude and 55 degrees north latitude.
SpaceX officials want to build a Super Heavy capture tower at Pad 39A, along with on-site fuel generation and storage facilities, a cooling tower, an air separation device and a dive system, the FAA fact sheet said.
A 2019 NASA environmental assessment of future Starship-Super Heavy operations found that launches would not have a significant impact on the biological or physical environment at Site 39A.
SpaceX officials also hope to begin launching Starship-Super Heavy rockets by 2026 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The Air Force is preparing a Starship Environmental Impact Statement with NASA, the FAA and the Coast Guard.
Last week, crews loaded sections of a Starship launch tower onto a barge at Turn Basin at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center for shipment to SpaceX Starbase in Brownsville, Texas.
Rockledge resident Brad Whitmore attended the open house Wednesday afternoon. He lives in a 105-year-old historic house south of Cocoa Village — and said rumbling vibrations from SpaceX Falcon 9 launches on southeast trajectories may have cracked the plaster on his ceiling and walls over the past year. He said others are expressing similar structural concerns in his immediate neighborhood near the lagoon.
“(Firing frequency) will continue to increase significantly going forward. And there will be an addition from what is primarily Falcon 9s to the inclusion of more Falcon Heavies and big rockets like SLS, Starship, Blue Origin,” he said.
“Falcon 9s can go from ‘you can barely hear them’ to ‘they’re shaking my house’ – and the windows of my house are vibrating and rattling and things on my desk are vibrating and moving,” he said.
For the latest news from Space Force Station Cape Canaveral and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, visit floridatoday.com/space.
Rick Neal is a space reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale atRneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1
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