DAILY TRIFECTA: Elon's Orbital Junk Yard

What goes up ... must come down

TITLE: Musk's SpaceX Plans To Launch The World's Largest Rocket 44 Times A Year In A Crowded Area – Its 600,000 Residents Don't Get A Say
https://www.benzinga.com/startups/24/08/40370379/musks-spacex-plans-to-launch-the-worlds-largest-rocket-44-times-a-year-in-a-crowded-area-its-600-000

EXCERPT: SpaceX is pushing forward with plans to make Florida's Space Coast the hub for its Starship rocket launches. Standing 397 feet tall, this rocket is key to Musk's dream of sending humans to the Moon, Mars and beyond. It's the most powerful rocket ever built, with the thrust equivalent to 160 Boeing 787 jets taking off at once.

Initially, SpaceX aimed to launch up to 44 Starship rockets annually from Kennedy Space Center. But now, they have even bigger plans. SpaceX plans to add another launch site at Space Launch Complex (SLC)-37 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, potentially leading to up to 76 launches per year. This means that within a small area on the Florida coast, SpaceX could launch rockets more than twice a week.

While space enthusiasts certainly find this exciting, it's a different reality for the people living in Brevard County. What was once a quiet, sparsely populated area when NASA first launched rockets is now home to over 600,000 residents, a busy cruise industry, and vibrant neighborhoods. The idea of frequent rocket launches raises serious worries for those who live there.

Residents are worried about the noise and vibrations these launches will bring because of the ship’s 35 thruster engines, which translate into as much as 23 million pounds of force at takeoff, according to WSJ. The power of the Starship rockets is expected to shake homes, rattle windows, and disrupt daily life. The environmental impact is also a major concern, especially for the Indian River Lagoon, a delicate ecosystem home to various wildlife.

Despite these significant concerns, residents find their voices aren't heard as much as they'd like. SpaceX's plans are moving forward with little input from the community, leaving many feeling like they have no say in what's happening in their backyard.

Locals and environmental groups closely observe the situation, hoping someone will eventually take their concerns seriously. For now, though, it looks like the future of Florida's Space Coast will be shaped more by the big ambitions of a tech billionaire than by the desires of the people who live there.

TITLE: WasteX: Environmental harms of satellite internet mega-constellations
https://pirg.org/edfund/resources/wastex-environmental-harms-of-satellite-internet-mega-constellations/

EXCERPT: The number of satellites in low earth orbit has increased by 127 times in five years, led by SpaceX. The new space race is ramping up quickly: some experts are estimating an additional 58,000 satellites will be launched by 2030. Other plans have been proposed to launch 500,000 satellites to create new mega-constellations that would power satellite internet.

Whatever satellites are launched can’t stay in orbit forever. If these proposals go through, at peak, 29 tons of satellites will re-enter our atmosphere per day, nearly equivalent to a Jeep Cherokee entering our skies every hour. That is a lot of space debris and pollution entering our atmosphere. That is not the only environmental concern, the rocket launches needed to maintain these mega-constellations are a huge potential source of pollution themselves, and would release soot in the atmosphere equivalent to 7 million diesel dump trucks circling the globe, each year.  

The environmental harms of launching and burning up so many satellites aren’t clear. That’s because the federal government hasn’t conducted an environmental review to understand the impacts. What we do know is that more satellites and more launches lead to more damaging gasses and metals in our atmosphere. We shouldn’t rush forward with launching satellites at this scale without making sure the benefits justify the potential consequences of these new mega-constellations being launched, and then re-entering our atmosphere to burn up and or create debris. This is a new frontier, and we should save ourselves a lot of trouble by making sure we move forward in a way that doesn’t cause major problems for our future. 

TITLE: The Road to the Forum: Space Sustainability
https://payloadspace.com/the-road-to-the-forum-space-sustainability/

EXCERPTS: There are at least 900,000 pieces of space debris that could create havoc in orbit. And that number is only growing (see China’s recent launch that added 300+ trackable pieces, but many, many more too small to track with current technology.) 

These pieces of debris may be small, but when they’re moving up to 18,000 miles per hour, they can still do serious damage, potentially tearing through satellites and putting astronauts’ lives at risk. 

The most concrete Congressional effort to address space debris is the bipartisan Orbital Sustainability (ORBITS) Act, led by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA). The bill, which has passed the Senate twice, in December 2022 and November, would:

· Order the Commerce Department to compile and share a list of debris that poses the greatest threats in orbit

· Establish a NASA program to demonstrate removal of debris

· Promote space traffic management best practices to avoid debris-creating collisions

A broader House bill would require any US mission to have a plan to mitigate debris in place when applying for certification. The Senate’s bill, however, is so far stalled in the House, making its future uncertain. 

The Biden administration has also prioritized putting plans in place to reduce space debris—and enforcing consequences for those who don’t follow through.

· In 2022, the FCC announced that satellites would need to be deorbited within five years of their mission ending, a dramatic reduction from the previous 25-year deadline.

· In September, the FAA proposed a rule that would require companies to dispose of rocket body upper stages.

· In October, the FCC fined a company for not sticking to its deorbit plan for the first time. Dish Network had to pay $150,000 for not properly deorbiting its EchoStar-7 sat.

Some of the [industry’s] self-imposed rules…include mandating a five-year deorbit period, requiring satellites to have the ability to maneuver, sharing of space traffic management data more openly, and urging insurers to offer incentives for sustainable missions.