Monthly Archives: May 2021

Residents of Brownsville, a small city in Texas, are divided.Their town is now home to SpaceX's rocket-production facilities, which only promises to grow bigger.

Some locals told Insider they're at their wits' end with SpaceX as the aerospace company sets off explosions and pushes locals out of the area. But others see it as a positive impact on the economy and residents' wellbeing.

Brownsville, which lies 20 miles west of SpaceX's launch facilities on the Gulf Coast, is known for being one of the poorest areas in the US. The 300,000-person city also has a very high unemployment rate.

When SpaceX CEO Elon Musk tweeted at the end of March that he was donating $30 million to Brownsville $20 million to schools and $10 million for revitalization it split the city.

Musk also announced that he was building a new city called Starbase at SpaceX's launch facilities which would be "much larger" than Boca Chica Village, where the company is developing its Starship rocket.

Brownsville's mayor Trey Mendez was surprised at Musk's announcement and said in an interview with KSAT 12 it was "exciting" that the community could have the chance to become the face of "space exploration and innovation."

Mendez said he hoped Musk's capital would help "accelerate the progress [in Brownsville] even more."

But there is division between those living in the south Texas city. Some are concerned that SpaceX's developments will be devastating for the people, nature, and ecosystems there. Others welcome the job opportunities, economic prosperity, and modernization that Musk's company could bring to the town.

SpaceX didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Every time a rocket blows up on the launchpad, it hurls debris into the nearby nature sanctuaries in the area. SpaceX has witnessed four out of five of its Starship prototypes explode, meaning that metals and pieces of machinery are lying in areas that have never been disturbed before.

"These ecosystems are our community's lifeblood," said Bekah Hinojosa, resident of Brownsville and member of Another Gulf is Possible, an organization working on environmental issues along the southern Gulf Coast.

"SpaceX explosions are littering our ecosystems, home to the endangered ocelot, aplomado falcon, and numerous migratory birds," she said.

Xandra Trevio is a member of the art collective Las Imaginistas. It's an initiative that aims to connect with officials and lower-income residents in the Rio Grande Valley, where Brownsville is situated, to improve quality of life. As a resident, she told Insider that she's already seeing the negative effects of SpaceX in the area.

"Any SpaceX expansion would be occupying more land considered sacred to the local indigenous Carrizo Comecrudo tribe," Trevio said, who lives in the area.

Residents face disruption every time they're told to leave their homes before a SpaceX launch, she added.

In March, Musk encouraged people to move to the Brownsville area, saying that SpaceX needs specific jobs in engineering, tech, and other sectors.

Residents felt that Musk's Twitter callout, however, wasn't directed at them, but instead anyone in the US who wanted a career at SpaceX.

Claudia Michelle Serrano, a digital content coordinator for Las Imaginistas, who lives in Brownsville told Insider that Musk's job proposals via Twitter were offered on a national level to those interested in working for the space company.

"The jobs being created aren't for us," she said. "There is zero transparency on the jobs SpaceX created locally."

Jobs in Brownsville are low-wage, meaning that residents on those salaries won't be able to keep up with increasing costs in the city, according to Serrano.

Christine Leal, a 17-year-old high school student living in the Rio Grande Valley, told Insider that although her dream is to work for SpaceX after studying engineering at university, she's worried about "the immense danger," which the company will bring to the area.

Pulling in engineers from outside of the valley will lead residents to be financially disadvantaged and pushed out of their homes, she said. "There's a large probability that [Musk] will further develop Brownsville, but neglect the locals who were already here."

Leal said although the company's project will be amazing for the local economy, "Elon and SpaceX need to make sure that locals have a role in that development and don't push us aside. If he doesn't, then we risk losing our culture, land, customs, and traditions."

Low-income residents could be forced to leave their homes due to spiking prices caused by SpaceX's presence in the area, locals told Insider.

Musk announced the construction of SpaceX's facilities in 2014. Since then, the cost of living in the area has gradually increased as more people from across the US flock to Brownsville to work for the billionaire.

If the city of Starbase goes ahead, the small village and its leaders would have access to eminent domain, which could let them legally force holdouts to sell their homes, Insider reported May 8.

"The biggest concern is displacement," said Serrano. "Our home could be lost with rapidly increasing taxes or others who rent will be priced out."

Investors have been rushing to Brownsville to buy homes, sending house prices rocketing, Insider reported in April. But many residents aren't able to afford these prices, leaving them with a tough decision of whether to stay in the area or not.

Serrano said this could have a huge impact on the Buena Vida area of downtown Brownsville, a historically immigrant and Spanish speaking area.

Many of the locals who spoke to Insider believe the local leaders have a lot to answer for. Freddy Jimenez, editor of media platform Trucha, told us the leaders of Cameron County and City of Brownsville don't represent the everyday people living in the area as they look to profit from the space company's developments. Conversations between the representatives and SpaceX have been kept under the wraps, he added.

"Working people, community members, indigenous people, and the beautiful ecology of the region is being put at risk and exploited," Jimenez said. "Shame on our local leaders and shame on the interests they serve."

Robert Avitia, who was born and raised in Brownsville, still lives in the city where he runs his business. He thinks that SpaceX has done wonders by pumping more money into the area.

Although Avitia believes there are more positives than negatives with Musk coming to Brownsville, he agrees that rocket debris in the wildlife sanctuaries and the closing off of Boca Chica beach are serious issues in the community.

Boca Chica beach was a place where people could hang out whenever they wanted, Avitia told Insider.

"Now it's controlled. You can't get in and out whenever you want to. It's only when they allow it, based on what's happening at SpaceX," he said.

The beach was a big part of the culture in the area. Avitia recalled the fond memories he had with his father of coming down to the beach to fish. Now, SpaceX sometimes doesn't allow people to fish as it's too close to the facilities.

Hinojosa, who raised concerns about rocket litter earlier in this report, also said SpaceX closing off the beach access for locals threatens people's livelihoods by preventing people from fishing and feeding their families, and enjoying the beach.

But Avitia is one of the many people who welcome SpaceX's expansion in Brownsville. Beforehand, the city was a "ghost town" with little to offer, he said. Now, it's become more modern as new restaurants and businesses pop up on the streets, the tourism sector grows, and highways are updated he added.

"There is division here," he said. "You have people that are just comfortable and don't want to change... I hate to say this but the ones that want to stay comfortable are going to lose, they're going to miss out."

Restricting access to the beach and fishing comes with change, said Avitia.

"[Musk] donating money was like him saying, "Hey, I'm here to help. I'm not here to take away. I'm here to help." And I truly believe he's here to help," he added.

Four other people who spoke to Insider said they were also excited about Brownsville being the home of SpaceX.

One of them, Rudy Guzman, a lifelong resident of Brownsville, told Insider that SpaceX is exactly what the city needs "to attract outside investors and grow our local economy." Others said it would motivate children and make a huge improvement to education.

Excerpt from:

SpaceX is causing division in Brownsville over disruption, economic impact - Business Insider

Four private astronauts have been strapped into a centrifuge, climbing mountains and learning how to fly a spacecraft ahead of their flight to space the first-ever crewed space mission without any "professional astronauts" on board.

The crew is preparing to launch this upcoming September as part of the Inspiration4 mission aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft. The mission, privately chartered by billionaire Jared Isaacman to support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, recruited three crew members in addition to Isaacman for the trip which will fly around the Earth for several days. The crew includes Isaacman, St. Jude physician's assistant and childhood bone cancer survivor Hayley Arcenaux, data engineer Chris Sembroski and geoscientist, science communicator and artist Sian Proctor.

And, since the crew was announced, they have been nonstop training and preparing for the mission that they seem to be very excited about. "It's something you dream of your entire life," Proctor told Space.com.

While the crew is made up of "non-professional" astronauts, or people flying to space who are not affiliated with NASA or any other space agency, that does not mean that they don't need to prepare thoroughly for their mission to space.

"If you look at the definition of an astronaut, it is somebody who has been selected for and is training for a spaceflight mission, and that's exactly what we're doing," Proctor said.

Related: Meet the contest-winning crew of Inspiration4

To kick off the training for their spaceflight, the Inspiration4 crew began with a centrifuge. Soon after the crew was announced, the private astronauts strapped in, one at a time, to the centrifuge at The National Aerospace Training and Research (NASTAR) Center in Pennsylvania. In this training initiation, they were spun in circles and experienced the G-forces (gravitational forces) that they are expected to experience during their actual trip to space.

The centrifuge spin was "awesome," Proctor told Space.com. "Everything's awesome. I'm just gonna say that."

Following their ride in the centrifuge, the crew geared up for the next daunting step in their training: a perilous hike. The four private astronauts hiked up the side of Mount Rainier in Washington to a base camp thousands of feet above sea level. Backpacking trips like this are a tradition and an important part of training for astronaut crews ahead of their missions.

These outdoor trips put the crew into an environment that requires them to work together and cope with challenges and unexpected obstacles. While the side of a mountain is different from the inside of a spacecraft, such a trip can help crewmates to learn how to support one another, communicate and push through difficult circumstances together.

"NASA astronauts have a history of engaging in crew cohesion and bonding" through such trips, Proctor said. "You're doing something that's kind of unique and out of your comfort zone, then you get to the point where you're like, 'I don't know if I can continue,' but then you reach in deep and you move forward, and you keep going. And that is part of the bonding experience."

"It's not life-threatening. It's more just that whole idea of endurance and survival and relying on each other and, and bonding through that," Proctor added. Proctor likened the training to her many experiences as an analog astronaut, during which she has lived with crews of researchers in remote facilities on simulated space missions. Proctor once spent four months living in a simulated Mars mission at the HI-SEAS (Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation) research facility on the slopes of Mauna Loa in Hawaii.

After braving the elements together in Washington state, the crew all convened for the first time at SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California. There, they went on to begin the more in-depth training for the mission.

Proctor, who will be the mission's pilot, practiced and ran through what it will be like to actually fly SpaceX's Crew Dragon vehicle. "The Dragon capsule is autonomous," she said. So, "ideally, it's going to fly and do the mission and all of that and me as a pilot, my job is to make sure that everything that's supposed to happen in a nominal way does."

She added that she will work to fly the craft with Isaacman, who will command the mission. "Together we work the system," she said. "It's very similar to flying an airplane where he's in the left seat as the commander and then I'm in the right seat, but we're both pilots."

This training at SpaceX continued to build the bonds of the crew. "It's really important to back each other up," Proctor said, "and really understand how we work as a team."

"I think that's one of the things that, when people think about NASA and the astronauts, a lot of times we think of them as individuals, but really they're a crew. They've trained together to become this integrated system you understand what everybody's job is, but you also understand how to back up everybody," she added.

Now, with approximately four months until the mission is set to take off in September, the team still has a lot of training ahead of them to ensure that they are all as prepared as possible for their trip around Earth. One of the upcoming training that Proctor is specifically looking forward to is also something that NASA astronauts do ahead of their flights, which is training flying jet planes.

NASA astronauts have to log a certain number of hours flying T-38 jets and, according to Proctor, their training is heavily inspired by and modeled after NASA astronaut training. "As a kid, I always wanted to fly a fighter jet," she said, "so I'm really excited about the fact that this is part of our training."

Email Chelsea Gohd at cgohd@space.com or follow her on Twitter @chelsea_gohd. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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The Inspiration4 astronauts are training hard for their private launch on a SpaceX rocket - Space.com

Sometimes competition is healthy but perhaps less so when you've unknowingly pitted yourself against your sibling for a chance to take part in a once-in-a lifetime opportunity.

Max and Charlie Denison-Pender are two brothers locked in rivalry for a place on Elon Musk's first civilian flight round the moon, which is slated for 2023. The trip is poised to last six days: three days to get to the moon and loop round the back of it, and three days to return to Earth.

It was first announced in 2018 that SpaceX planned to launch a private passenger named Yusaku Maezawa around the moon.

Earlier this year, Maezawa, a Japanese billionaire, released more details: he would be chartering the flight, now known as the dearMoon project, and was seeking eight people to join him.

He then announced an open competition for people to apply for the tickets. Originally, Maezawa said he would give the seats to artists but is now broadening the search.

The application process is simple and involves filling out a form that asks for basic information like name, email address, and country. It also asks the applicant which of Maezawa's social media accounts they follow.

Eager to acquire a seat on the flight, both brothers entered the competition separately.

Amid a few giggles, Charlie told Insider: "I wasn't expecting him to want to go to the moon because I've always been the one interested in space. I guess he has too but unknown to me."

When asked about their rivalry, Charlie said: "We're competitive, but in a very friendly way."

For Charlie, though, entering the competition means more than just traveling on a historic flight round the moon. As a student of aerospace engineering at Brunel University, Charlie has ambitions to transform the future of travel beyond Earth.

"The reason why I'm interested in going on the flight is because one day I hope to start a space airliner," he said.

He added that space travel, in his view, will mimic the nature of commercial travel in the future. He hopes to be one of the first people to contribute to that development. "Going on this trip would provide me with raw inspiration, adventure, but also a first-hand look into the sort of standards that you need to be meeting for commercial space travel," he said.

Meanwhile, Max, an artist, has been hard at work on his end-of-year exhibition. His interest in flying to the moon came as a complete shock to Charlie, given his creative background.

When asked how he'd feel if Max won the seat instead of him, Charlie answered: "I'd be secretly quite annoyed but also very happy for him at the same time."

But such travels are not without risks. Therehave been several failed landings of SpaceX Starship prototypes, although onedid finally land successfully this month. Arecent incident involved a rocket exploding upon landing, which sent debris flying in the air.

Also this month, pieces of a runaway Chinese rocket crashed down in the Indian Ocean. Although it was unmanned, it highlighted the dangers of space travel.

But Charlie seemsunbothered. "Generally, I'm pretty confident in Elon Musk and SpaceX, because he's been doing groundbreaking things for a long time and throughout the Starship prototypes and the testing, you can see the progress each time," he said.

He added: "I've always been quite adventurous and a bit of a risk-taker so even if there was a risk, I would still do it because I'm passionate about it. So, not too worried about things like that."

As previously reported by Insider, Maezawa said the mission will include 10 to 12 people in total, including the eight civilians he will select.

The crew members will be chosen at the end of June and training will begin shortly thereafter, the website for applications said. Preparation for the mission will last until "lift off," which is scheduled for the first part of 2023.

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SpaceX: brothers had no idea they were rivals in dearMoon contest - Business Insider

SpaceX has been selected by aerospace company Firefly to fly its Blue Ghost lunar lander to the moon in 2023, on a Falcon 9 rocket.

Blue Ghost will be carrying 10 payloads for NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services. The mission forms part of a $93.3 million task order, as well as separately contracted commercial payloads, the space agency reported.

In an announcement, Shea Ferring, Firefly's SVP of spacecraft, said: "Firefly is excited to fly our Blue Ghost spacecraft on the highly reliable Falcon 9, which will deliver NASA instruments and technology demonstration payloads that support NASA science goals and NASA's Artemis program."

He added: "The high performance of SpaceX's Falcon 9 launch vehicle permits a lunar transit using minimal Blue Ghost propulsion resources, thereby allowing the lander to deliver more than 150 kg of payload to the lunar surface."

The NASA deal, which was agreed in February, involves the delivery of 10 research payloads, as part of the agency's mission to conduct experiments and other technology demonstrations on the moon to investigate surface conditions.

Texas-based Firefly is yet to launch anything but in June, it hopes to conduct rocket testing for small satellite launches, Space.com reported.

Named after a rare type of firefly species, Blue Ghost will land at Mare Crisium in the moon's Crisium basin and conduct operations for a complete lunar day, which is about 14 days on Earth.

Tom Markusic, Firefly's CEO, said in a blogpost:"Firefly is excited to leverage the performance and reliability of Falcon 9 to propel Blue Ghost on the first phase of its journey to the Moon."

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SpaceX has been selected by Firefly Aerospace to send its Blue Ghost lunar lander to the moon in 2023 - Business Insider

BOCA CHICA BEACH, Texas (KVEO)- Without a doubt, SpaceX has brought a lot to South Texas, specifically to Boca Chica. But it has also had a major impact on the city of Brownsville.

Brownsville Mayor, Trey Mendez, visited memory lane when SpaceX was first starting out in Cameron County.

I remember in September of 2019, I was at the SpaceX facility for an event where Elon Musk spoke and really started to talk about starship and the plans for a starship and everything they were going to be doing, said Mendez.

Slowly but surely, everything SpaceX set out to do is slowly happening. Mayor Mendez said the city of Brownsville continues to grow and SpaceX has had a big part in that.

Weve seen a pretty big surge over the last couple years specifically over the last 6 months some of that has coincided with SpaceX growth theyve really ramped up operations theyve got about 1,400 employees right now and theyre looking for more, he said.

With SpaceX outside city limits, Mendez said Brownsville does not profit from tax revenues or property taxes. While that would also be a benefit for the city, Mendez adds they do see indirect benefits from their operations.

People that have moved here people that are purchasing houses people that eating locally or staying at hotels things like that so we do see an indirect impact and its a pretty big indirect impact, he said.

According to Mendez, now that SpaceX could have a contract with NASA in the near future, the possibilities could be endless and bigger than they anticipated.

Other space-related companies that are interested in coming to Brownsville as a result of whats happening out there that doesnt necessarily launch companies but that are involved in other facets of space or the space industry, said Mendez.

The focus for the city is to be the destination for the SpaceX industry. Mendez hopes this will bring more people down to Boca Chica Beach in different parts of Brownsville to enjoy the history of the city.

The last time they launched last week I saw probably a couple of hundred people on the side of the road between here and Port Isabel which I wasnt expecting so that was interesting to see families, real people of all ages with their eyes on the sky looking at what was happening, said Mendez.

As for the future of Brownsville, Mendez is excited for what the space industry will bring.

I certainly see this industry growing, space-related businesses are probably going to be a trillion-dollar industry by 2030 so we definitely want to capitalize on that and continue to grow, he said.

For now, space fanatics will be keeping their eyes on what SpaceX plans on next.

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Brownsville sees impact throughout the years thanks to SpaceX - KGBT-TV