Love this description of the BFR. Wonder if the author has been paying attention to other development programs: “Super Heavy” booster, a behemoth envisioned at 230 feet tall which has for years existed in various renderings and design mockups but has yet to be fully assembled or launched.
Except. . . it’s being assembled now? Did you miss the picture of it being stacked in the article? They’ve flown the engines for it several times on the Starship demonstrators. Which is a lot more than any other big rocket recently.
I believe that was Tom’s point. To say it “has yet to be fully assembled or launched” could be said about the other developments.
I’m sure some NASA person may say “SLS is stacked in VAB”. Yeah, and when the Orbiter used to be rolled over to the VAB for stacking, rollout to pad was a week away. When is SLS rolling out? More importantly, when did the program start?
In the meantime, when will BFR be stacked and flown, and when did that program start?
That’s a pretty stupid description. There was no point in building a Super Heavy until Starship development reached a certain point.
I’m surprised that the Environmental Assessment for Super Heavy/Starship wasn’t done a long time ago. EAs are something that FAA/AST does quite well, or at least has in the past. It does consume a very large portion of the AST budget, which has always been very lean for a federal agency.
I’m sure that COVID-19 has had some impact on this. My wife works for a private contractor which supports a federal agency, and only recently (at the end of May) went from every other week to full time work at the office. That required everyone to be fully vaccinated, something this agency could pull off. The environmental assessment process AST has established relies heavily on private contractors, and AST certainly doesn’t have the same ability to get its subcontractors vaccinated as the agency for which my wife’s company works. AST is an office of about 100 people in an agency of 48,000 people, and comes last in budgetary priority – I’m sure the priority for vaccination was even less than last, if that’s possible.
When I started this comment, it was with the vague intent of agreeing with the “red tape” headline. But in this case, I have to say that the delay in the EA is very likely outside of AST’s control due to COVID-19, and AST’s chronic underfunding.
I wouldn’t impute any sinister intent to AST, because they simply have none.
I was criticizing NEPA more than AST.
I criticize both
This is probably going to be an on-going process as if it is successful. SpaceX will be continuously expanding this into a spaceport. The Starbase nomenclature is no exaggeration. Not quite on the scale of O’Hare in Chicago, but over time it will expand and expand hopefully.
The spaceport in Boca Chica will be forever under some kind of review. Just like any other major airport.
Good thing its in Texas
“environmental assessment” What does that even mean for a spaceship, even a really big one? We aren’t talking about strip-mining here; aside from a loud noise for a short while, will it affect the environment at all beyond a small radius?
Love this description of the BFR. Wonder if the author has been paying attention to other development programs: “Super Heavy” booster, a behemoth envisioned at 230 feet tall which has for years existed in various renderings and design mockups but has yet to be fully assembled or launched.
Except. . . it’s being assembled now? Did you miss the picture of it being stacked in the article? They’ve flown the engines for it several times on the Starship demonstrators. Which is a lot more than any other big rocket recently.
I believe that was Tom’s point. To say it “has yet to be fully assembled or launched” could be said about the other developments.
I’m sure some NASA person may say “SLS is stacked in VAB”. Yeah, and when the Orbiter used to be rolled over to the VAB for stacking, rollout to pad was a week away. When is SLS rolling out? More importantly, when did the program start?
In the meantime, when will BFR be stacked and flown, and when did that program start?
That’s a pretty stupid description. There was no point in building a Super Heavy until Starship development reached a certain point.
I’m surprised that the Environmental Assessment for Super Heavy/Starship wasn’t done a long time ago. EAs are something that FAA/AST does quite well, or at least has in the past. It does consume a very large portion of the AST budget, which has always been very lean for a federal agency.
I’m sure that COVID-19 has had some impact on this. My wife works for a private contractor which supports a federal agency, and only recently (at the end of May) went from every other week to full time work at the office. That required everyone to be fully vaccinated, something this agency could pull off. The environmental assessment process AST has established relies heavily on private contractors, and AST certainly doesn’t have the same ability to get its subcontractors vaccinated as the agency for which my wife’s company works. AST is an office of about 100 people in an agency of 48,000 people, and comes last in budgetary priority – I’m sure the priority for vaccination was even less than last, if that’s possible.
When I started this comment, it was with the vague intent of agreeing with the “red tape” headline. But in this case, I have to say that the delay in the EA is very likely outside of AST’s control due to COVID-19, and AST’s chronic underfunding.
I wouldn’t impute any sinister intent to AST, because they simply have none.
I was criticizing NEPA more than AST.
I criticize both
This is probably going to be an on-going process as if it is successful. SpaceX will be continuously expanding this into a spaceport. The Starbase nomenclature is no exaggeration. Not quite on the scale of O’Hare in Chicago, but over time it will expand and expand hopefully.
The spaceport in Boca Chica will be forever under some kind of review. Just like any other major airport.
Good thing its in Texas
“environmental assessment” What does that even mean for a spaceship, even a really big one? We aren’t talking about strip-mining here; aside from a loud noise for a short while, will it affect the environment at all beyond a small radius?