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Under the previous admin it took longer to get regulatory approval than it took to build it (the most advanced rocket in the world) and it involved insane thing
by Dig1t 2y ago
Under the previous admin it took longer to get regulatory approval than it took to build it (the most advanced rocket in the world) and it involved insane things like strapping a pair of headphones onto a seal and playing rocket sounds to it.
We can only hope that the new administration will streamline the process and reduce the time needed to get regulatory approval.
- sonofhans 2y agoYeah, I agree, fuck seals. The more we damage marine mammal life with loud sounds the better. If they didn’t want to get killed off in awful ways by our tech toys they should have evolved ear muffs.
- throwawaymaths 2y ago> strapping a pair of headphones onto a seal and playing rocket sounds to it. That sounds more traumatizing to the seals than the actual launch. Anyways: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4939-3456-0_5#:~:text=The%20marine%20mammals%20of%20the,part%20of%20the%20twentieth%20century. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4939-3456-0_...
- ceejayoz 2y ago> That sounds more traumatizing to the seals than the actual launch. To a substantially smaller number of seals.
- throwawaymaths 2y agothat don't even exist. (see link)
- ceejayoz 2y agoYour link is about the Gulf of Mexico. Vandenberg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandenberg_Space_Force_Base https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandenberg_Space_Force_Base) is on the Pacific Ocean, where there are most certainly seals and sea lions. https://www.vandenberg.spaceforce.mil/News/Features/Display/Article/1069703/elephant-seals-join-team-v/ https://www.vandenberg.spaceforce.mil/News/Features/Display/... You have the wrong body of water.
- throwawaymaths 2y agoDelta IV heavies also launched from Vandenburg since long before f9 existed, and is considerably louder than falcon 9. was there a need for that study?
- ceejayoz 2y agoThe study was apparently for the Delta IV. https://x.com/mcrs987/status/1848070131781455911 https://x.com/mcrs987/status/1848070131781455911
- throwawaymaths 2y agosame thread, tory bruno says it was not for delta IV https://x.com/torybruno/status/1848797537215410627 https://x.com/torybruno/status/1848797537215410627
- ceejayoz 2y agoI'm pretty sure he's talking about Starship, not Falcon 9. Starship doesn't launch from Vandenberg; neither Starship launch site has seals present. Propellant mass 441,800 lbs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_IV_Heavy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_IV_Heavy) to 906,000 lbs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_Heavy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_Heavy) in the respective first stages.
- throwawaymaths 2y agofalcon 9 heavy has never launched from vandenburg.
- ceejayoz 2y agoBut it will. https://www.vandenberg.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4001026/notice-of-intent-to-prepare-an-environmental-impact-statement-for-authorizing-c/ https://www.vandenberg.spaceforce.mil/News/Article-Display/A... (Starship hasn’t, either.)
- LorenDB 2y agoIIRC this study was not about the lethality of Starship, it was about whether the seals were agitated or disturbed by the launch.
- unsnap_biceps 2y ago> Under the previous admin it took longer to get regulatory approval than it took to build it (the most advanced rocket in the world) Generally it does take awhile for a third party to understand the design decisions and their impacts then the designing person. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone working on software. > it involved insane things like strapping a pair of headphones onto a seal and playing rocket sounds to it. Do you have a citation for this?
- cooper_ganglia 2y ago>it involved insane things like strapping a pair of headphones onto a seal and playing rocket sounds to it There are actual images of a seal with headphones strapped to its head online!
- ceejayoz 2y agoThat doesn't mean said image matches the story told. https://x.com/mcrs987/status/1848070131781455911 https://x.com/mcrs987/status/1848070131781455911 asserts it was actually a study for the Delta IV booster, not something SpaceX had to do.
- cooper_ganglia 2y agoYes, I'm aware of that. My point was that SpaceX has said they've had to do this, and if it sounds so wacky that that's unbelievable, there are actually photos of the same thing happening with seals, so I feel very little need to doubt that SpaceX was held to the same standard if that's what they claim. Not a "citation" as much as anecdotal evidence that dispels doubt.
- ceejayoz 2y ago> My point was that SpaceX has said they've had to do this... Musk also famously tweeted "funding secured" for Tesla. "He's lying" is 100% within the realm of possibility.
- 2y ago
- saalweachter 2y agoI don't know if Elon Musk or SpaceX has ever kidnapped a seal and played headphones to it, but the photos that were going around the internet for the last few years (they made the rounds in 2017 in connection to SpaceX, before Musk began referencing it in 2023/2024) were from an unrelated study in 2006: https://x.com/mcrs987/status/1848070131781455911 https://x.com/mcrs987/status/1848070131781455911 I'm still looking or the original study to find out what the "larger study" was about [was it an impact study related to Vandenberg? Was it part of seal monitoring, and while they had the seals they did a bunch of other stuff?], so if someone else digs it up I'd be interested in a link.
- saalweachter 2y agoI eventually stumbled upon the Federal Register, which has some documents that talk about this, both re: SpaceX and Boeing at Vandenberg. Boeing, probably related to the pictures on the internet: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2006/06/26/E6-10044/small-takes-of-marine-mammals-incidental-to-specified-activities-harbor-activities-related-to-the https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2006/06/26/E6-1004... SpaceX, related to the landings: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/11/15/2018-24977/takes-of-marine-mammals-incidental-to-specified-activities-taking-marine-mammals-incidental-to https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/11/15/2018-24... I don't know exactly how often who puts headphones on seals yet, but it sounds like as part of operating at Vandenberg, it's routine to "haul out" (by which I assume they mean, capture and remove, releasing some time/distance away) harbor seals, so they aren't in the way; it sounds like they also (sometimes? always?) perform some amount of monitoring activities on the seals, since you've already got them captured. Also, all of this activity is apparently termed "Level B harassment".
- bryanlarsen 2y agoThey take a lot longer than 6 weeks to build a Starship. They can build a Starship a month, but that's because there is significant parallelism. My guess is that there are parts on a Starship that started assembly over 1 year before the Starship is complete.
- m4rtink 2y agoChecking if seal is broken was for the Falcon Heavy booster landing pad on Vandenberg, it was not really related to the Starship program.