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The FAA recently updated this page as part of the new Environmental Assessment at Boca Chica which is required before SpaceX can be approved for orbital flights

• sneak 6y ago
  What's the environmental impact delta between a 12km launch and landing and an orbital launch and landing? I can't imagine the difference to the ground environment is that significant.
  • wongarsu 6y ago
    The Super Heavy Booster has an order of magnitude more engines than the Starship prototype that did the 12km hop. I don't think Starship can reach orbit without the booster (it can reach space, but not orbital velocity)
    • zaroth 6y ago
      Sounds levels in particular will be extreme at launch (as in, deadly even outside the blast radius). And there's a lot more fuel that could potentially explode over populated areas on the way into orbit. For this reason, I think the intent is for Superheavy launches to be mainly done far out at sea. But Boca is needed in the interim for testing purposes.
      • rlt 6y ago
        > And there's a lot more fuel that could potentially explode over populated areas on the way into orbit. Isn’t that why launch complexes are usually on coasts? They immediately point out over the ocean, and if it’s off course the flight is “terminated” (i.e. exploded) before it reaches populated areas. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Range_safety https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Range_safety
      • childintime 6y ago
        > Sounds levels in particular will be extreme at launch (as in, deadly even outside the blast radius) Though that's generally true, Everyday Astronaut watched the SN8 launch up "close" and reported the sound was (relatively) mild. Indeed the raptors sounded differently, with less of the violent "cracking up". There may be a bit of a surprise coming here.
        • baq 6y ago
          three engines, throttled. the full stack will have 30ish, full throttle, perhaps even above 100% current. the sound is going to break rocks apart. i wonder what the suppression system will look like.
    • Tuna-Fish 6y ago
      Calculations over at NSF made it clear that SN8 had sufficient delta-v on the pad to reach the Karman line, if they hadn't throttled back and turned off engines as it ascended. So SN8 could already have reached space. (With the assumption that the nose could have taken the pressure of going supersonic relatively low.) Similar calculations state that a Starship with full tanks and 6 or 7 engines might just be able to make it into orbit on it's own, assuming it doesn't have any payload or heatshield. Since that's useless and wastes the ship, they will never do it. But it still boggles the mind that they are using a craft that is almost a SSTO ship ... as a second stage, on top of a massive first stage. The Raptor engines are freakishly good, near the top in both efficiency and thrust.
      • rozab 6y ago
        I believe it requires about 30 times more energy to reach orbit than to just reach the karman line.
  • SECProto 6y ago
    In addition to the other comment (a lot more engines in the first stage of a full stack than the test hopper), there's also the impact of mishaps - an exploding fully fueled full stack would have dramatically larger impact than the partially-filled test hop. Then there's he environmental impact of more frequent launches (originally the area was approved for 12 falcon 9 flights a year) - sound impacts on wildlife, habitat impact of larger construction areas, more staff around reduces habitat quality for wildlife, etc.
  • baq 6y ago
    the noise. 30ish (28?) raptors will make a lot of it. and if it explodes on the pad... 1kt TNT equivalent? that's a tactical nuke.
    • m4rtink 6y ago
      That would require very good mixing of the fuel and oxidizer before explosion, which is unlikely to happen during a launch failure. IIRC for the N1 falling back on the pad after a few seconds of flight it is estimated that only a fraction of the fuel load was exploded and unburnt kerosene was raining for many minutes.