SpaceX accused of dumping mercury into Texas waters for years

Stopthatgirl7@lemmy.world to News@lemmy.world – 1022 points – SpaceX accused of dumping mercury into Texas waters for years
popsci.com

SpaceX’s Starship launches at the company’s Starbase facility near Boca Chica, Texas, have allegedly been contaminating local bodies of water with mercury for years. The news arrives in an exclusive CNBCreport on August 12, which cites internal documents and communications between local Texas regulators and the Environmental Protection Agency.

SpaceX’s fourth Starship test launch in June was its most successful so far—but the world’s largest and most powerful rocket ever built continues to wreak havoc on nearby Texas communities, wildlife, and ecosystems. But after repeated admonishments, reviews, and ignored requests, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) have had enough.

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Is it? As far as I can tell rocket launches don't cause that much pollution compared to a coal powerplant, or the hundreds of daily airline flights.

Cargo ships are probably up there as some of the worst. They burn copious amounts of really dirty fuel.

Yup. They burn heavy bunker fuel - the sludge that is too bad to be used for anything else.

Considering the amount of shipping, it's horrendous.

But - and there's always another view - I don't know how much energy you'd need to use to haul that much cargo by other means like rail and trucks. One container ship carries as much as a thousand trains could carry. Vessels are really, really large, which make them quite effective.

And trains can't cross Oceans. Even tho that cargo ships need a shit load of fuel it isn't that much per ton of cargo due to the efficiency and sheer mass they are carrying

Oh you are right coal is worst we can keep blowing up rockets and send them in orbit so that billionares can have their nice trip to space

If a rocket gets to orbit, it most certainly hasn't blown up ;) Furthermore if it is reusable (which only SpaceX has) then it doesn't even crash into the ocean.

Let's be very clear on what rockets generally do. Last year, there were just over 200 launches worldwide (a world record, btw). ~10 of these sent professional astronauts to space stations. The rest deployed satellites that do all sorts of amazing things, including astronomy research, weather and earth observation, and communications. If 1 or 2 are a tourist flight, what's the big deal?

what’s the big deal?

Here's the big deal, are you paying attention?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink#Military_applications

Personally, I think it's a great thing that the US arguably has the best military surveillance and communication satellites. Certainly I prefer money going there than into literal bullets. In any case, doesn't this have nothing to do with space tourism?