Residents report: “Like a mini earthquake”
04/22/2023 – 12:52 p.mReading time: 2 min.
In the video: A lot of dust was kicked up during the launch of the giant rocket. (What: t-online)
For the US aerospace company SpaceX, the Starship launch was a success. Residents of a nearby town, on the other hand, report “frightening” events.
It was the space event of the year: As Starhip slowly pushed towards the sky this week, the whole world watched spellbound. And despite a controlled explosion of the rocket after three minutes, the launch was a technical success for Elon Musk’s space company SpaceX.
What nobody saw during the live broadcast: While the company’s employees cheered, a small Texas town descended into chaos. As the New York Times reports, residents of Port Isabel, near the launch pad, had to contend with vibrations, clouds of dust, debris and broken windows.
“It was really scary,” the paper quotes a Port Isabel resident who was at home with her 80-year-old mother during the rocket launch. Her house shook a bit during previous rocket launches, but that was nothing against the launch of Starhip.
A covering of thick grains of sand
Pictures in social networks such statements. They show residents’ cars covered in a layer of dust and brown debris.
A spokeswoman for Port Isabel told the New York Times that “a layer of thick grains of sand” could be seen all over the city.
According to the New York Times, authorities had to order the closure of a nearby beach and parts of a highway “so as not to endanger public health and safety during the clean-up work.”
SpaceX has yet to comment
The US aviation authority FAA is now also dealing with the case. In a statement, the FAA said SpaceX had activated a contingency plan.
The regulation states that the space company is responsible for assessing the situation and notifying the relevant authorities in the event of danger. SpaceX has yet to comment on the case.
The case will presumably keep residents of Port Isabel busy for a long time. The New York Times reports that they are skeptical of Musk’s company SpaceX after the incident.
A local resident told the newspaper that Musk’s company has brought jobs to the economically troubled region. But the brown dirt that now covers the city is a reminder of the “environmental downside and a sign that things are getting out of control.”
“The locals here are simply sacrificed,” the resident is quoted as saying.
Starship is designed to be reused multiple times
The 120-meter high Starship rocket successfully took off from SpaceX’s Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas on Thursday.
About three minutes after launch, however, the unmanned rocket began to rotate when the first stage of propulsion was about to detach from the Starship space shuttle. The missile eventually detonated three minutes after launch.
The Starship rocket system consists of a 70 meter high first propulsion stage called Super Heavy and a 50 meter long space shuttle with additional propulsion. The rocket should be able to be used several times in the future.
