Today, just after 4PM, SpaceX will conduct another test of Starhopper at Boca Chica. The police hand-delivered the following notice on Saturday to residents of Boca Chica, a small residential community 2 miles behind the spaceport:
If you think that Spaceport Camden promoters have been telling us the truth, you need to read this story:
The test today at Boca Chica is one-fourth the power of the rocket proposed in the Spaceport Camden Draft EIS. Is it any wonder that Camden officials refuse to release information under the Georgia Open Records Act?
More worrisome is that SpaceX has never received a Launch Site Operators License for Boca Chica. They’re testing under an experimental “permit” that allows dangerous activity without the license. Today, folks are warned to leave their homes. Two weeks ago, SpaceX started a marsh fire and a wildfire that spread into a Texas Wildlife Refuge. A week earlier, the rocket erupted in a massive fireball. That can be the outcome for the Union Carbide site, too. Kennedy/Canaveral gets the launches and we get the "skunkworks."
The taxpayers of Cameron County receive
in annual property tax from SpaceX from the launch site. See for yourself: (SpaceX 2019 Tax Assessment). You'll notice that the property is valued the same as when SpaceX bought it. Before they brought in 330,000 cubic yards of fill dirt because the launchpad site was too unstable and before they built roads and buildings. Taxpayers have gained nothing but costs, inconvenience, and health and safety risks!
The $716.19 is less than most Camden property owners pay in taxes on our Camden homes! The more property SpaceX buys, the more taxpayers lose.
And the jobs? Temporary. The test today is the last for the Starhopper since they’ve never gotten a Launch Site Operators License for Boca Chica. Assuming a successful test, everything is moving to Kennedy/Canaveral. And the Boca Chica residents? They hope the SpaceX test is successful, too. And that their homes are undamaged when the sun sets today.
“I am shocked, angry, and concerned about what kind of damage I might sustain," Cheryl Stevens told Business Insider. "Also bewildered as far as what to do that day. I don't know how to prepare for this. I plan to call the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] on Monday to discuss the civil rights violations among other things."
That’s why Jimmy Starline, Gary Blount, and Steve Howard won’t let us in on their deep, dark spaceport secrets. Or how much their plans have and will cost us.
Why is this so important to them?