The environmental impact of rocket launches is not good. I launch rockets for a living, including out of Vandenberg, so I’m personally invested in the ability to launch from the West Coast. It’s one thing to launch national security missions once every two months and take the hit to the environment for that, but it’s another thing to launch once a week every week to put up some disposable internet satellites so a billionaire can make more billions.
It’s only political if you think preserving the environment is political. But CA has been long-known to care about preserving the environment, so if the Coastal Commission has been able to make rulings based on environmental impact in the past then I don’t know how this lawsuit will work out. If they had asked for something reasonable like going from 6 to 12 launches, I think the commission might have been more amenable or at least open to negotiating to something like 8 or 10 launches. 50 launches is ridiculous, though.
The environmental impact of rocket launches is not good. I launch rockets for a living, including out of Vandenberg, so I’m personally invested in the ability to launch from the West Coast. It’s one thing to launch national security missions once every two months and take the hit to the environment for that, but it’s another thing to launch once a week every week to put up some disposable internet satellites so a billionaire can make more billions.
It’s only political if you think preserving the environment is political. But CA has been long-known to care about preserving the environment, so if the Coastal Commission has been able to make rulings based on environmental impact in the past then I don’t know how this lawsuit will work out. If they had asked for something reasonable like going from 6 to 12 launches, I think the commission might have been more amenable or at least open to negotiating to something like 8 or 10 launches. 50 launches is ridiculous, though.